


Quarantine One Shots

by UchihaNaruto_2



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Sexual Content, i just wanted these to see the light of day, most of them i didn’t even get to the fucking point yet? wtf, mostly they’re trash, theyre def not finished whatsoever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:49:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23421958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UchihaNaruto_2/pseuds/UchihaNaruto_2
Summary: We’re all very bored, and with my time I write. So, once a week or so, I’m going to pull a random draft from my docs and just post it. Absolutely none of them are finished.
Relationships: Gaara/Rock Lee, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura/Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata/Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 14
Kudos: 41





	1. Hinata’s Dilemma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata had only known service her entire life. Service to her clan, service to her family, service to her husband and children. But what happens when she starts to reject this idea, and to do what she wants to for once? 
> 
> A mess. That’s what happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it was sasuhina but i didn’t even get to that. i rarely got to the point with these things i have no idea at all

Of course, it needs to be stated that this was not Hinata’s plan. Under no circumstances did she think she’d ever encounter this situation. It was novel, and completely unexpected. 

Never in all her years of living had she ever fathomed that she wouldn’t love Naruto. Even now, she found that she still did. But she realized—albeit a little too late—that she had only loved him, not been in love with him. She had loved the idea of him, of his heroism, his bravery, all the things he stood for. She had been in love with his  _ nindo _ , but not the man who stood behind all that. 

She loved Naruto, and she loved their children with every atom of her feeble body. She loved Boruto, loved that he was following in his savior-father’s footsteps. He was everything that the next generation of Konoha deserved. And she loved Himawari, how fierce she was; such a contrast from Hinata, even at her age. 

Her family was paramount. She lived for those children, and up until recently, had been living to serve Naruto the way a wife was supposed to. Cooking for him, keeping everything clean as much as was warranted (he was the Hokage, so she didn’t have to do all  _ that  _ much), waiting for him to come around, pleasing him whenever he was in need of pleasure. 

But that was just it. She was an extension of her family, yet again. It was nearly the same feeling as when she was growing up, and in her adolescence she had been compared to Neji and his abilities. Villagers even compared her to her sister, though it was  _ she  _ who was meant to inherit everything that the Hyuga clan had. Now, she was the Seventh Hokage’s wife, Boruto’s mother, and that seemed to be all. 

She had never been her own person; she had never felt noticed for her own personality. Did she have a personality? Being in love with Naruto has been her only character trait since she was, like, 8. And she had watched other women develop themselves as she grew, and watched their lives go from revolving around men and childish things to revolving around their respective skills. Ino was head of the Yamanaka clan; Sakura had taken over as head at the hospital; Temari had never really been obsessed with boys; Kurenai-sensei was raising Mirai; Tenten owned the most-frequented weapons shop in the village. Everyone had a life.

Hinata’s only purpose was to care for Boruto, Himawari, and Naruto. And Naruto only seemed to care about work. He was fulfilling his dream, she knew, and for that she was so proud of him. He was doing exactly what he’d said he’d do. He was proving to their children and all of his contemporaries, by example, that they could do anything as long as they put their minds to it. Hinata adored him for that. But again, she adored the  _ idea  _ that he’d done what he said he would. 

Naruto loved her, of this much she was certain. She wasn’t disillusioned to the fact that she was not his first choice as he had been hers, but that did not matter too much to her; at least, it hadn’t before. He asked her to marry him and of course she said yes. What else was she going to do with her life if she didn’t end up with Naruto? She didn’t have many other goals or plans.

She had been feeling inadequate for years now, since right after the birth of Himawari. Everything in life was good, but something was missing. She had felt a shallow emptiness that only grew deeper, put on by the fact that Naruto was working just  _ so  _ much. Having Himawari reminded Hinata that for a year or so, all Naruto seemed to have time to do when he came home was fuck her. 

She would always miss him so much, while he was working so excessively. When he came home, she’d make sure their son washed up extra good and put on his best clothes; she would cook something good, usually ramen, among other things (she had weedled the recipe from the folks at Ichiraku a while ago), and bombard him with questions of his work, his missions, how was Sarada? Sasuke, Sakura? Kakashi? Well, Boruto did such-and-such on his own mission, she’d go on to say. Normal conversation dragged on because Naruto would be away for so long, but she hung off of his every word. 

Then, after dinner, with the children safely in bed and the dishes safely washed, they’d retire to their room, and he would always pretend to be too sleepy to touch her very much. So Hinata would roll over and let Naruto be the big spoon. She would pull her eye mask over her face, the smallest smirk playing on her lips. 

Naruto’s arm would wrap around her waist, so gentle, as though she was glass, and she would lean into it. His hands were warm on her pale skin. His breath was warm on the back of her neck where she’d pulled her hair into a bun on the top of her head. 

“Mm, ‘ttebayo,” or something to that effect. It made her want to laugh, but she still pretended to be asleep. His hands moved across the expanse of her body, from her hip and up to her breast, back down past her waist and to the place where her stomach gave way to her underwear. “Are you really sleeping?” came the rasp of his voice, his breath and his hair tickling Hinata’s neck.

Hinata shook her head then, and turned just so that she could see his eyes after she had pulled her eye mask up over her bangs. “No, are you?” She countered with a giggle, and he smiled at her too. She traced the scars and lines of his face, getting deeper with age. Her body turned to mold against his completely, letting him get a leg in between her thighs. 

After Naruto shook his head, Hinata fixed him with a look of feigned puzzlement. “Well, what’s keeping you up?” She only ever showed this confidence to him; she couldn’t imagine letting anyone else know that she spoke like this. Naruto’s hands rested on the small of her back, and he brought one up to pull her hips impossibly closer to his. 

“I think you know exactly what’s keeping me up,” he’d whisper back, and then their foreheads were touching, their noses were touching, and then he was kissing her, still so gentle, but with a smidge more force. Hinata loved feeling him get rougher and rougher as they went on. Naruto’s tongue ran along the seam of her lips, and she let him in as she had a million times before. 

His fingers were digging into her skin, warming her face and driving her crazy. The hand on her hip moved to feel in between her legs, feel her wetness, feel just how much she loved him. Then, Hinata rolled so that she was on top, her thighs on either side of Naruto’s hips. The look on Naruto’s face as she sat on him, looking up at her, was one that Hinata kept in her mental vault for times when he wasn’t there. Surprise, it used to be, but now there was a dark lust that made his sky blue eyes turn something sinister, like the ocean in a storm. 

“What’ll you do now, since I’m keeping you up?” Hinata’s tiny smile had grown, just as the hardness underneath her had. Naruto was focused on her neck even as he said, “Gonna make you wish you’d just let me sleep.” 

Hinata squealed as Naruto moved them so that he was over her, his legs between hers and his arms on either side of her head. Everything about him exuded power and need, and she was so glad to give it to him. Hinata’s slim fingers reached up to toy at the hair at the base of Naruto’s neck, and she pulled him closer so that she could whisper in his ear, “I don’t believe you.” That sets him off every time, being doubted. 

Naruto was in action then. He moved so fast, shoving off his sweats and letting them hit the floor next to the bed, and then he was sliding her panties to the side to get two fingers in her fast. When he knew he’d only be home for one or two nights, he was a lot more needy. He’d want her a little more roughly than he would if he had more time. 

Hinata’s breath puffed out hot against his neck, and his own sounds echoed hers. He was rutting against her leg, being patiently impatient with her in the effort to make sure she would be okay to take him. “Shh, ‘Nata,” he mumbled in a shaky voice, “you’re gonna wake him up.” She wasn’t even being loud, just high pitched, but she definitely didn’t have it in her to counter him. She just put a hand over her own mouth and used her other to reach between Naruto’s legs so that she could run it over him, his thigh, his length.

Hinata could see him gritting his teeth, but then her eyes were closed and she could only  _ feel _ . She felt pleasure, of course, tingly, like she was going numb from the feeling of him curling his fingers inside of her. She felt fatigue setting in, too, since Boruto had taken so much of her strength; she got tired so easily. Still, she mainly and most importantly felt love for this man, and elation that he was home again, and that he wanted her. Her legs parted more, hoping to hint to him that she was ready for more. 

And he may have been a pretty oblivious boy, but he was a perceptive man. Naruto’s fingers slacked in pace when she allowed him more space, and when he removed them in order to get his underwear off, she whimpered just slightly. Hinata’s eyes fluttered open when she felt him pushing her sweaty bangs from her forehead. “So gorgeous,” he said, making her blush get that much deeper, reaching down like fire all the way to her neck. His hand came to her cheek, and for a moment he just admired her. Hinata couldn’t look him in the eyes when he was doing this, taking her in, but he would make her by lifting her head by the chin. 

“N-Naruto, please,” she stuttered.

“You are the greatest thing to ever happen to me,” he said in an indirect reply. Hinata looked away again, and then let her eyes close once more. She couldn’t see him, but she felt his hands on her hips, sliding her panties down until she could kick them off of one leg. When she opened her eyes again, she placed her hands in Naruto’s shoulders, and she  _ did  _ look him in his eyes as he pressed just the tip past her wetness. 

Hinata pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, watching Naruto as he watched the place where their bodies met. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to this feeling, this ultra-binding connection. It meant she was  _ his  _ and he was  _ hers _ , irrevocably, unchangeably, forever. It made their marriage valid, it made her feel like she was a woman for the first time, and it most importantly meant that they were in love on the deepest level possible.

When Naruto had pushed in halfway, he slid out again, and thrust in hard and deep. A broken sound tore its way out of Hinata’s throat, something between a moan and a whine. Naruto’s eyes came up from between them to her face, and even though she could see the tumult of lust, she still saw the softness there. So much love, she thought she’d drown.

He set a fast pace; he needed her. The sounds of their love were mixed with the sound of the bed protesting as well as the huffs and moans mingling in the space between them. He was so close to her, she was so close to him, and his hands didn’t seem to know what to do. One moment they were on either side of her head, then he was pressing his body on hers and letting his hands roam from top to bottom and back again, squeezing and pinching lightly. 

When Naruto shifted just slightly, the angle changed, and Hinata started to feel the heat coiling in her belly get just that much tighter. “Naru-Naruto,” she stuttered, over and over again, like it was the only thing she’d ever learned to say. His hair was sticking to his forehead, all sweaty, and his mouth attached to the place where her neck met her shoulder. His teeth grazed over her pulse, and she sucked in a sharp breath before sighing as his tongue came to soothe her skin. 

Hinata brought her legs up to wrap around Naruto’s waist, so that he was pushing in deeper and deeper with every stroke inside her. She was so wet, she could  _ hear _ it, and she was so close, she could feel it. Naruto roughly slid his hand underneath her right thigh and pushed it up until her leg was all but resting in his shoulder, and she used the opportunity to start touching herself. 

“So good, missed you so much, thought about you all day.” Naruto was rambling in her ear, but all she could hear was rasping, groaning, grunting, the bed, the slick sound of her sex as he moved in, out. The hand on her clit was moving erratically, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, as she came in and out of focus. 

“Gonna cum,” she squeaked, throat tight. 

Naruto looked at her eyes then, willing her to finish, but she always waited for him. Hinata could feel him getting sloppier, pushing in so hard she thought he might really break her. Her walls were tightening around him, nearly milking him, begging him to finish with her. As she felt his seed spilling into her, Naruto shoved his face into her neck again, biting at her throat. She came, too, her body shaking with the force of it. 

When he’d come down from the high of climax, Naruto would gently unhand her, roll off and look up at the ceiling. He never bothered to put his pants back on. Hinata would turn then to look at him, and wonder what he was thinking about. He was always present in front of the children, engaged and asking them questions, but when it was just the two of them, he wasn’t really _there_ sometimes. He was probably thinking about Hokage things, political and diplomatic things that she’d never understand. Of course, she couldn’t ask him not to think about his job. It was his life, what he existed to achieve. She just sort of wished that he’d be here sometimes, hold her and spend time with her, even for just a day, an hour.

“Naruto?” Hinata reached to place her hand on his shoulder. 

He blinked and turned his head to her, flashing her with that smile of his, the smile she had worked so hard to have directed at her. “Sorry, Hinata. Work just gets to me, sometimes.” She nodded, understanding, though not pleased. 

It went like that for a year or so; he’d come home for just a few days, and on the first night they would always have sex. The next night, he’d take Boruto someplace nice, and let her sleep. Eventually, it became obvious that she was pregnant, and Naruto did his hardest to stop working as much and be home more often. 

It wasn’t as often as Hinata would have liked, though. She wished that he’d be there every single day, holding her when she woke up, helping her care for their son and her pregnant body, their  _ daughter _ , their home, things that regular husbands did. But, he wasn’t a regular husband, he was the Hokage, so she couldn’t be selfish. She let him work, what else was she supposed to do? She had seen Sakura go through the same thing with Sasuke, him being gone and having to raise Sarada essentially alone. She knew it was possible, but that didn’t make it any easier.

She was the only one of her friends to have two children instead of one. While most of them were getting themselves into real life, she was starting over with an entirely new baby and an entirely new feeling of loneliness. Boruto helped with Himawari when she was an infant the best way that he could, while Naruto was away. It wasn’t the first time, so she knew the basics of caring for a baby. Still, she couldn’t help but be reminded that the only thing Naruto really had time for was sex when he wasn’t working. Not even time for their new baby. They didn’t go on dates, they rarely spent time together awake. Meals with their son and having sex. That was it.

It left Hinata feeling…  _ less.  _ She didn’t know how, why, couldn’t put her finger on it, but she was less. She felt less happy, less present, less engaged. Hinata wouldn’t dare label herself depressed, that was far too selfish. Depressed people withdrew from all of life and didn’t do anything but sleep and wallow. Hinata wasn’t going to let herself get to that point. So she poured her life into the babies, made sure that they knew how important it was to have  _ hobbies  _ and  _ friends  _ and  _ extrinsic interests _ . Things she had never had for her whole life until she married Naruto. 

After a while, life didn’t seem as though it would ever change. It took one night, one look, for Hinata’s life to be turned completely upside down. 

***

“Mom, Mom!” Boruto nearly broke the front door down in his excitement, Himawari trailing behind him. Hinata was lounging on the sofa, having cleaned until it drove her mad earlier in the day. She smiled warmly at her children and opened her arms so that they would come and sit with her. After dropping their bags and taking off their shoes, they came to her and pressed into her sides. 

“What’s got you all excited today, hm?” Hinata’s fingers threaded into Himawari’s hair as she watched Boruto expectantly. His little face lit up even brighter, grinning just like his father. 

“Today after training, Sarada told me that her parents wanted to invite you and dad to dinner. She said I can go, too..and I guess Himawari, since she can’t be here by herself.” With that realization, Boruto’s smile faltered just slightly. Himawari’s face screwed up in indignation. 

“I can so stay here alone!” Himawari said matter-of-factly, causing Hinata to give her a stern look. 

“No, you can’t,” she said. Himawari’s pout was the last thing she saw before she heard a knock at the front door. “You two, don’t kill one another,” Hinata said pointedly before standing and adjusting her clothes and heading to the door. 

It was Sakura, smiling earnestly, and Sasuke there behind her, a shadow even in the light of day. He was always an enigma, and she was interested despite herself. There was so much about him that no one knew, not even Sakura (she had had many long talks with Sakura whenever Sasuke was away sometimes, about how he wouldn’t open up to her or their daughter. “Ah, Sakura, Sasuke.” She let them in past her, and shooed the children away so that adults could speak. “Boruto was just telling me that you two were planning something?”

Sakura’s smile fell and she rolled her eyes. “That Sarada,” she said, shaking her head. “Can’t keep anything from your son. We wanted it to be a surprise.” That little note made Hinata chuckle.

“Oh, it’s exciting either way. I’m assuming you’d like Naruto there, too...the next time he’ll be home is Thursday.” Sakura was nodding along while Hinata spoke, but Sasuke seemed to be in his own world. He was watching her, sure, it seemed that he was looking  _ through _ her. Hinata couldn’t help the pink dusting her cheeks, and was thankful that Sakura cut in so that she’d have to listen. Sasuke’s attention turned to his wife when she spoke, and Hinata almost let out a sigh of relief. 

“Thursday sounds good to me. Sasuke won’t have to go on another mission for a good few months, and in the meantime I was hoping that we could all get together a little more. Just like old times, before the kids.” Sakura’s smile was back, her eyes closed, but Sasuke was looking at Hinata again. This time, she thought that maybe he was actually looking  _ at  _ her. 

“Seems like an eternity,” Hinata said after clearing her throat. 

“Right? I’m surprised that it’s been this long. Where has the time gone?” Sakura shook her head, and Hinata mirrored her. Time passed so quickly, but when she was alone, her thoughts about life made everything seem to stand still. 

Conversation ensued between the two kunoichi, and Hinata felt almost like she belonged. Sakura was her friend, she always had been. They were all so busy raising children and going about their regular lives (all but Hinata), it had been a while since she’d had the pleasure of idle conversation. 

Eventually, Sasuke seemed to be getting restless, just sitting there listening to women talk. Sakura didn’t notice, but Hinata was, for some reason, very in tune with the tapping of his foot against the floor and his constant shifting. She wanted to find a way to end the conversation and send them on their way, but she had no idea how to do so without kicking them out. 

Himawari’s little head came into Hinata’s peripheral vision then. She beckoned her daughter onto her lap, and wrapped an arm around her so that Himawari’s head was leaned against her chest. Sakura’s eyes grew soft as she watched, in the way that Hinata had only seen from her friends that were mothers. “I remember Sarada at that age...I miss it sometimes, you know?” 

Hinata’s eyes drifted down to her daughter, whose own eyes were closed. She was sucking her thumb; usually Hinata would be embarrassed, but these were her friends. “Yes, I understand.” She nodded her head. 

(This wasn’t something she wanted to talk about. Sure, Sakura might miss having a young child, but she wouldn’t have another. None of her friends would. It was only Hinata who had dared to take that step, into expanding the family. It was a special kind of hardship that she wouldn’t change for the world, but she knew that none of her friends would ever go as far as she had. Hinata felt her throat getting tight as Sakura continued.)

“She needs you. Boruto—he doesn’t ask for help very much anymore, does he? Sarada doesn’t seem to need us very much, either.” Hinata could mention that she’d need them forever, but Sakura was still talking. Hinata carded her fingers through her daughter’s loose hair as she listened. “I miss… the feeling of someone needing me. Of course, the people at the hospital need me, Sasuke needs me at home,” she turned her head to him; his eyes were on the walls, “and Ino might need me to babysit Inojin every once in a while, but none of that compares to being needed, really  _ needed _ by your children. Sometimes, I envy you two, you and Naruto, because she needs you. You’ve gotten to fulfill that need for just a tad longer than Sasuke and I.” 

Sasuke’s attention was drawn to Himawari for the first time, after Sakura had finished speaking. He seemed to be regarding her for the first time; he hadn’t been around her as much as he’d been around Boruto. Hinata couldn’t help but watch him watch her daughter for a drawn out moment. “Uh, y-yes, she does need us, despite what she says. She can’t do everything she thinks she can. She wants to be like Boruto so much, independent, going on missions, putting herself out there the way he does. She looks up to him, maybe even more than Naruto and I.” 

“And that’s lovely,” Sakura said softly. Her eyes were fixed on Himawari’s sleeping face. “It’s something special when your children have each other. A whole new meaning of ‘family.’”

***

Thursday night came, and Hinata was wearing her nicest outfit. She had combed Boruto’s hair down, though she knew that he would find a way to mess it up before the night was over. Himawari kept fidgeting with the bows in her hair. Naruto was so worried about whether or not to wear his  _ work uniform  _ that he wasn’t paying attention to anything the kids were doing.

“Stop fighting this instant,” Hinata said sharply. Boruto’s hand stilled in his sister’s hair. Hinata shook her head as they both lamented that the other had started it. “Come along, and do not embarrass your father,” Hinata said. Boruto rolled his eyes hard, but he still gripped her hand hard when she reached for his.

Sakura has a knack for decorating. There weren’t very many traces of Sasuke around the place, but that was because he was rarely around. Sakura filled the void by taking up a number of hobbies, she’d told Hinata. Decorating happened to be one of them. 

“Ah, Naruto, Hinata, welcome! And the  _ children _ , look at how handsome you are!” Sakura kissed Hinata’s cheeks once Hinata had released the children to their own devices. 

“I always forget how beautiful you keep this place,” Hinata said. 


	2. Naruto Knows More Than You Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto is stuck. There are things he wishes he could say, wishes he could tell, but he can’t. Not even because at this point, he doesn’t have the answers to the questions. It’s because Sasuke might die if he does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so basically sasuke was a spy and only naruto knew and obviously that’s why he started chasing him!! i didn’t even get to that part i don’t think lmao

“Life isn’t  _ good _ . Life hasn’t been  _ good  _ for years.” 

Naruto didn’t remember the meaning of the word. He’d been under the assumption, for years now, that “good” things only happened to people that didn’t deserve it. Kakashi-sensei deserved good things; no good things came to him. His sensei and his teammates were dead. He’d _ killed  _ one of them. Team 10 deserved good things, they were good kids. Instead, their sensei died (and in that, Kurenai and her baby deserved good things, too.) Even himself and Sakura deserved good things. But Naruto’s parents were dead. The Third Hokage was dead. Jiraiya was dead. Though it may have been more sweet than bitter, Nagato was dead. Itachi was, as the news would have it, dead. Many of their comrades over the years had died, or gotten lost, or… 

Or… 

Left.

_ Sasuke _ . 

Naruto closed his eyes against the beginnings of the rain that was tickling his cheeks, his forehead. He was just a few steps past the village gates; or what was left of them. They weren’t very much more than shattered wooden posts, thanks to Nagato. You’d think that would be the first thing they decided to fix, but Danzo had stepped into Tsunade’s place because of her coma, so it was  _ his  _ decision as to what they worked on first. 

Naruto just stood sometimes, in the spot where he knew Sasuke  _ must  _ have turned to look back at the village at least once. Before he was gone. Before he’d been  _ taken _ , taken away. Before he’d started his life of crime. Espionage. Naruto stood there sometimes, for hours on end. Waiting. For what? Sasuke had told him, when they fought. It wouldn’t be so easy.

“I have to do this, Naruto.” Sasuke’s voice was small, and wet with tears. It was raining that day, just the same as it was all those years ago. It always rained whenever Sasuke seemed ready to cry. 

Naruto could barely breathe. The rain wouldn’t do his already rattling lungs any good. Sasuke had knocked the air out of him more than ten times over the past few hours, and Naruto had liked to think that he’d done the same thing. But there was Sasuke, above him, and Naruto feeling his life fading as Sasuke’s hands looked as though they wanted to touch. The rock Naruto that was  _ dying  _ on was getting slick and slippery. Naruto’s fingers scrambled against the wet rocks, for purchase, so that maybe he could sit up, but he couldn’t. He felt Sasuke’s palms pushing him back down, and he closed his eyes. 

“Don’t try to stop me,” Sasuke said. 

Naruto coughed. “Couldn’t if I tried,” he wheezed.

That made Sasuke laugh. Naruto opened his eyes when he felt the sensation of Sasuke’s fingertips running into his wet hair. Sasuke’s thumb spread out over the leaf etched into Naruto’s hitai-ate.

“Just, uh.” Naruto forced himself to speak, to ask the question. “Tell me why you’re doin’ it. Why you… gotta—” Naruto hacked and wiped his hand with the back of his mouth. There was blood there when Naruto’s low eyes came up to look at his skin on their way up to Sasuke’s face. His hair was hanging, soaked, over his forehead. His eyes were closed, and he seemed in pain. Like what he was about to say was going to hurt him a lot more than it was going to hurt Naruto.

Sasuke sighed out, a languid sound. His fingers fisted in Naruto’s hair, forcing Naruto to open his eyes and look again. He hadn’t realized they’d fallen shut. Sasuke was printed on the back of his eyelids. He’d never forget the look of Sasuke, kneeling over him, his knees all scraped, his tunic torn, his face in pain. 

“This is the only way I’ll ever know about Itachi. About my history. I’ve been down there, in the Naka shrine, under the mat. He told me to— to go.” Sasuke was beginning to sound choked up at the memory of his traitorous brother and the last words they’d spoken to one another, all those years ago. But he took a deep breath and he tried again. “And I read the stuff, as much as I could bear, but…” Sasuke’s voice trailed off. He looked away, past Naruto’s view. He shook his head once, twice. His fingers withdrew from Naruto’s hair before splaying out over his chest again. Over Naruto’s heart.

“It isn’t as though I want to. But I have to.” Sasuke paused. “I have to know what else he knows, why he’s  _ doing  _ this. I have to know.” Sasuke’s voice was too serious. Imagine that, Sasuke being too serious. Naruto choked a little on his breath and turned his head to the side. It hurt to support himself. 

“I have to know, so that I can protect you.” 

Naruto’s head hurt too much after that to remember what else happened. Maybe he’d never remember. There were so many questions he wished he’d asked in that moment, so many answers he didn’t have. Protect him from what? And why did Sasuke have to put his life on the line to do it? Naruto only ever wanted Sasuke to stay, to be with the people that cared about him. To be with Kakashi, and Sakura, and Naruto. Now, it was time for them to protect Sasuke. But especially Naruto, because he knew just a little more than they did. He had more incentive to help Sasuke, and to save him.

Naruto blew air out of his nostrils and turned his head up to the sky. He saw the rain, falling heavier the longer he stood. He saw the clouds moving across the sky, slow and dawdling. They had nowhere to be. He saw the leaves swaying in the wind, and his eyes followed one as it drifted down, down, down, until it hit the ground. His face hurt from a few days ago, when Karui had nearly killed him. He’d do it again, right now. For Sasuke. Because there was no way he’d ever give him up, not knowing what he knew.

“Naruto.”

Naruto didn’t turn fully to her voice, just craned his neck so that he could see her. Sakura had brought him a jacket, and something to eat. 

“I don’t know why you come out here,” he said instead of a greeting. He could hear her coming closer, even over the growing roar of the rain.

Sakura scoffed. “Me? I don’t know why  _ you  _ come out here.”

“I don’t either.”

But today was different. Because tomorrow, he’d be setting out to the summit. Sasuke’s name was on everyone’s lips now, and that was never a good thing. Good. There went that word again. 

“You should sleep,” Sakura said. She herself sounded tired. She was just as exhausted as Naruto was, these days. She worried over Sasuke nearly as much as Naruto did, but she didn’t know. She thought she knew why; thought she loved him. But Naruto knew more, and he  _ knew  _ that… whatever this feeling was, the one he got when he envisioned Sasuke’s scowling face— it was deep. Deeper than a friend. Deeper than infatuation, deeper than something silly. They’d bled together, and in Naruto’s opinion, they shared pain. He’d learned all about that, sharing pain and gaining understanding from that, from Nagato. And even if it wasn’t what Naruto was beginning to suspect what it was, he knew that he’d never felt this way before. It was a  _ solid  _ feeling, something he could nearly touch if he sat and let it manifest. It was the opposite of fleeting. It had settled in his heart long ago to roost, and it had never migrated.

“I don’t need to sleep any more than you do,” Naruto quipped. He took the jacket she brought and slid it over his wet shoulders. It wouldn’t do him very much good, but she meant well. 

Sakura sighed. “You have things to do tomorrow. Usually, I just worry you’re going to get sick,” she said. She laughed, but there was no mirth. “It’s cold up there, Naruto. You  _ will  _ get sick if you stay out here any longer.”

Naruto shrugged. His shoulders felt tight. He rolled his neck and stretched his arms out in front of him. “I guess,” Naruto said. “I’ll go home,” he conceded. But they both knew that he wouldn’t sleep. 

Sakura shook her head. “No, you won’t,” she argued. She forced the bread to his chest. It was getting soaked. “You’re going to come with me.”

“Sakura,” Naruto whined. He took the soggy bread and ripped off a wet piece. 

“No, I won’t hear it. I know you, Naruto,” Sakura said. She stretched her hand out into the space between them. Naruto begrudgingly took it, and let her take him to her home. She knew him too well. If she’d left him to his own devices, he’d have stayed up all night fretting over what they’d be doing tomorrow, and in the days beyond. 

Team 7 would be on the road after Danzo a few hours after he left for the summit. If anyone asked, they could say a lot of things. To keep an eye on him, to scope him out, to see what he was  _ really  _ doing. And that was partially true, in the case of Yamato and Kakashi. 

And though Sakura knew him well enough, she didn’t really know why Naruto wanted to go. Yes, he was after Sasuke, too. They all were. He needed to ask— no,  _ beg _ for the Raikage’s forgiveness for what Sasuke had done, if the rumors were to be believed. Sasuke Uchiha, The Avenger, was killing jinchurikis. Sasuke was killing people. Sasuke had killed his brother. He’d avenged the massacre, for sure, but then he’d turned around and had a fatal battle with the Raikage’s brother. 

“Fuck’s sake,” Naruto had muttered to himself when Kakashi had given him the news. He was chewing his thumb nail, so his words were muffled. 

“It can’t be true. There’s no  _ way _ .” 

For the life of him, Naruto would never understand why Sakura had been so incredulous. This was Sasuke they were discussing (as they always did when it was the five of them together. Yamato constructed little structures for them to convene in with his wood style, and Sai set his scroll beasts outside. Sasuke was always the topic of discussion, and only Naruto and Sakura weren’t tired of talking about him. They never would be). Sasuke would do anything to achieve his goals,  _ clearly _ . He’d run away from his home, his friends, the people that cared about him the most, to gain power to kill his brother. It wasn’t outlandish, not in Naruto’s eyes.

But Sakura just couldn’t believe it. Her beloved Sasuke,  _ murdering _ . It made Naruto realize that maybe she’d never seen Sasuke for what he was. He was  _ not  _ someone who would sit back and let the world happen to him. Sasuke was happening to the world, one gruesome and heinous act at a time. One sorrow at a time, one fight at a time, one breath at a time. Sakura had never allowed herself to really understand that about Sasuke. Because then, she’d have to come to terms with him, as a person. Not as an idea, but a real person. And the real person that Sasuke was didn’t fit with the life Sakura wanted for herself. But Naruto never said anything about that. 

It just didn’t make sense, Naruto thought as he allowed himself to be pulled along down the streets. The roads were turning to mud now, though the rain had begun to relent slightly. Naruto hadn’t realized that he was so hungry until he’d eaten that soggy bread. He wished she’d brought more. Anyway. 

It didn’t make sense, the things Naruto was hearing about Sasuke. Joining the Akatsuki. Fighting, killing. Killing  _ Itachi _ , like. Really doing it. Maybe Naruto hadn’t ever come to terms with who Sasuke was either, because he couldn’t let himself fathom Sasuke standing before his brother and taking his life. That wasn’t real. That wasn’t Sasuke. Every time Naruto imagined it, he began to feel dizzy and he had to close his eyes. His lax reaction before was just because it hadn’t hit him yet. 

It had hit him  _ hard  _ that same night when he’d gone back home. It was dark, and he rarely ever did anything at home at night besides sleep, these days. Before, he might visit with one of his senseis for a few hours, or ask Sakura over, or train by himself. Always in pursuit of surpassing Sasuke. But ever since Sasuke had left, Naruto only left home to work or to eat. He didn’t have fun, he didn’t visit with anyone, he rarely saw his friends. Of course, in the weeks after Pain’s assault, he’d been helping to repair what was left of Konoha; it kept him busy, and it kept his mind off of Sasuke for at least a few hours. 

Naruto had gone home the night after that meeting, still chewing his thumbnail. He was ready to get home after working hard on some buildings in the shopping district. He was sweaty, and he needed to shower. Oh, yes, Naruto thought to himself, maybe I won’t stay up so late tonight and be exhausted tomorrow. It was honestly wishful thinking. Naruto knew himself far too well, and he knew that if the stars were shining, he’d be awake. 

He took his shower and as he sat on his bed, with a towel slung around his neck, his eyes caught sight of the photo of Team 7. Four years ago now. Naruto picked the framed photo, ran his fingers over the faces. Kakashi, less wrinkled, less stressed. Still so gray. Sakura, still so pink of cheek and wide of grin. Well. Less wide of grin, but at least she still smiled. Naruto looked at his own little face. So  _ angry _ , so  _ jealous _ , so completely consumed with the need to be better than Sasuke. And then, Naruto looked to Sasuke’s face, and his mind went blank.

Sasuke had really done it. He’d stood before his brother, heard whatever words he wanted to hear, said whatever words he wanted to say… and then he’d fought him. To the death. Naruto had to lay the frame face down so that he wouldn’t catch anymore glimpses of the picture it held by accident. It just didn’t make any sense, really. That Sasuke would feel the need to commit such an incongruous act, a  _ murder _ , the murder of his brother. Of course, Naruto knew that Sasuke had told everyone, anyone who would listen, that he was going to do it. But Naruto had always thought that that was just a ploy, just a diversion tactic. Because Sasuke’s true goals were wrapped in Itachi, entwined with the words he needed Itachi to say. Naruto’s face was shoved into his pillow as his mind raced, so that maybe his sobs wouldn’t carry on the wind out of his open window. He’d cried himself to sleep that night, at this point a week ago.

“Naruto? Did you hear me?” Sakura’s voice snapped Naruto from his reverie, and he made a confused sound.

“Hm? Sorry. What did you say?” He hadn’t noticed that they were already standing at the door to Sakura’s house. The lights were all off; her parents were asleep. 

“I  _ said _ ,” Sakura huffed, “you don’t really have to come in, if you don’t want.” Her toe was shifting the soggy dirt around. She was suddenly not so bossy, in the light of her front door.

Naruto shook his head. “No, I need to,” he said. “I’ll wake up late and end up stalling the mission if I go home. You always keep me in line.” He didn’t miss the way Sakura’s face flushed just the slightest pink, but he did ignore it. 

“Well, you know what to do.” Sakura patted the back of the sofa as she passed by it on her way to the stairs. “My parents have an early day tomorrow, so try not to make too much noise when you wash up in the morning, yeah?” Sakura stopped her ascent of the stairs, with her right foot on the first one and her hand on the rail.

Naruto toed his shoes off at the door and flopped down onto the sofa. He nodded vaguely in her direction. “Yeah, I get it.” He shoved his face into the couch cushions and waved a hand in the air when Sakura mumbled a goodnight.

When Naruto opened his eyes again, he felt a small breeze stirring his hair and the tie of his forehead protector tickled the back of his neck. It was sunny, and this was a day that he wished would last forever. He was sweaty, and his chest was heaving. Exhausted, but it was pleasant. Everything smelled of musk, of anger, and yet also of soft earth and tree leaves. Naruto blinked once and in the next instance he felt a strong chakra near him. Fire. 

Sasuke.

“Hey, dattebayo, quit hiding! Only cowards hide! Just give up!” Naruto turned this way and that, looking up at the branches and through the canopy. No sign of Sasuke besides the notches in the trees and several shuriken laying discarded a few feet from him.

“Fine!” Naruto put his hands up, weaving a seal in just seconds. “Guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.” Where there had been one Naruto, there now stood five. “You can’t hide from all of us!” Naruto thought he might have heard a chuckle, but he chalked it up to the wind and sent his shadow clones out to search for Sasuke. 

It had been what felt like at least half an hour before Naruto was ready to give up. His clones were exhausting his chakra, and yet there was still no sign of Sasuke. His chakra seemed to be the same spot as it had been in before. Close, right underneath Naruto’s nose.

“Naruto.”

“Wha—” 

The original Naruto spun around, lost focus and control of his clones, and fell over backwards when they all disappeared at once. He craned his neck and squinted his eyes to see Sasuke through the intense sunlight. He was sitting cross-legged amongst the leaves and thinner branches. His back was against the trunk of the tree, and his hands were behind his head. Naruto growled in general annoyance at Sasuke’s flippancy.

“It’s useless,” Sasuke drawled, closing his eyes. Mocking Naruto with every breath he took. “You’ll never be as good as me, at anything. You’re no one. A loser. And no one’s gonna let you forget it.” Sasuke’s eyes flicked open and he jabbed a thumb at his chest. His eyes, his lips, his face. So smug.

“ _ I  _ sure won’t.”

Naruto scowled and waved a scarred fist in Sasuke’s direction. “You—! You’re no better than me!” Naruto knew it was a lie just as the words slipped past his teeth. God, Sasuke was so good. So good, at everything. He had  _ fire style _ . He had a name that people respected, even if they feared him. He had the attention of every girl, even Sakura. Naruto stomped his foot into the mossy ground. He winced and hoped Sasuke didn’t notice.

“You’re a pest, Naruto. Kakashi thinks so, Sakura thinks so. I know it. You know it. No one  _ likes  _ you,” Sasuke continued as though Naruto hadn’t spoken. 

“No one likes you either, you bastard,” Naruto spit. He gasped when Sasuke was suddenly in front of him with a  _ whoosh  _ of air.

Sasuke’s eyes were hard and black as a starless night. He was staring directly into Naruto’s soul. So close, and his chakra was so hot. Because of fire style. That’s all. 

“You listen here, you damn idiot,” Sasuke said through gritted teeth, poking his index finger hard into Naruto’s chest. “I know that people don’t like me,” he said, “but I don’t need that. I could care less if they like me. I told you fools that, on that first day. I have two goals. Do you remember them?”

Naruto gulped audibly, but he wrenched Sasuke’s hand away from his chest with as much force as he could muster. “I remember your stupid goals.” Naruto put his hands on his hips and mocked Sasuke with a higher pitched voice as he recited them. “To restore my clan, and to destroy a certain someone. Big whoop.”

Naruto didn’t see the blade, he only felt it. He sucked in a sharp breath and raised his left hand to his right shoulder. There was a tear in his jacket, and his shoulder was bleeding just slightly. Naruto looked over his shoulder to see the kunai stuck into a target in a tree. He turned back to Sasuke to see him back in the tree.

“What’s the big idea, teme!?”

Sasuke snorted and turned his nose up at Naruto. “Neither of those things have anything to do with anyone liking me. So next time you try to hurt my  _ feelings _ ,” Sasuke sneered, “just remember that it takes a lot more than that.” 

Naruto flared his nostrils, and he was about to say something else, but then something whacked him over the head and he nearly fell off the… sofa?

“Oh, shit,” Naruto breathed. A dream. 

“Naruto, wake up! You’re going to be late if you lay there one more second,” Sakura whisper-shouted. She had a rolled up  _ something  _ in her fist, and she looked poised to hit Naruto again.

“Ok, alright.” Naruto held his hands up in defeat as Sakura glared at him. Naruto took his time in the washroom, mostly because he didn’t  _ want  _ to get on with this. He didn’t want this to happen. Preparing to go to the summit, making the journey to the summit,  _ getting  _ to the summit. Naruto sort of wished that none of this shit was happening, but every time a thought like that crept up, Naruto remembered what the purpose was. Sasuke, Sasuke’s name. Sasuke’s soul. He was  _ good _ , and Naruto needed the Raikage to know that. Naruto’s hand curled into a fist against the bright white counter. He watched himself in the mirror; watched himself run calloused fingers through his hair, watched himself grimace as he tied his hitai-ate right across his forehead. Watched himself as he sighed deep, and then set his face to normal.

“Why were you whispering about Sasuke?” Sakura asked. Her eyebrow was quirked. 

“What?” Naruto scraped underneath his fingernails with his teeth. 

“You kept saying, ‘Sasuke, Sasuke,’ when I came down here. I thought maybe you’d wake up if I stood over you, but you just turned over so that your back was to me.” Sakura moved the rolled up newspaper between her hands. “These things come in handy.”

Naruto rolled his eyes. He leaned against the door while he put his shoes back on. “Do you have any more bread?” 

Sakura scoffed. “Naruto, they’ve got rations for you,” she complained. Still, she sent him on his way with another loaf of bread and waved to him from her front step until he was sure she couldn’t see him any longer. 

“Naruto, will you hurry up? We were about to leave you,” Pakkun grumbled. He was lounging in Kakashi’s arms. 

Naruto made a face. “Oh, yes, because this isn’t  _ my  _ mission,” he said. 

Yamato put a heavy hand on Naruto’s shoulder. “It isn’t, boy.”

“That’s right,” Kakashi said offhandedly. He was busy fixing Pakkun’s little vest so that his arms went through the holes. 

Naruto slapped his hand over his forehead. “Stuck with you dolts for masters!” he muttered. This would be a long journey. 

There wasn’t much talking for the first few hours, because they were making up for what Yamato had said was “lost time.” Naruto had only been ten minutes late, but whatever. In the silence, flitting from tree to tree, Naruto thought about the dream he’d had. 

A dream of a different age. It was Sasuke, but it was years-ago Sasuke. Sasuke that didn’t really care about anything except for exactly what he’d said: restoring his clan and destroying his brother. But after they’d met Itachi in that inn, Sasuke had changed. That was the turning point, Naruto realized years later.  _ Something  _ passed between them that Naruto would never understand, and Sasuke’s motives were completely shifted. He told people the same things as before, if not even more intensely, but he wasn’t acting on the words he said anymore. The purpose of leaving the village was not, as far as Naruto could tell, to actually commit fratricide. But that was what Naruto was facing. That’s what he’d face, if he ever got to Sasuke again. No, no, he would.

But what would he say? He could go direct, and just say something like, “Sasuke, you’re going fucking nuts.” Or he could try to be light about it, ask Sasuke what he was thinking. But Sasuke would see right through both of those approaches. No, Naruto would have to get right down to it, and ask Sasuke why he’d strayed so far from his original purpose. Naruto wasn’t sure how far he’d get, but he knew that he had to try. Because he needed to understand Sasuke, and to understand why he wasn’t doing what he’d said he was going to do.


	3. We Know, Dude.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Naruto speaks with the Konoha... 10, about how they very clearly already knew that Sasuke was his one and only.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> random drabble time!!!!! i actually like this one as is it, it’s not in need of too much more

“That’s the thing, Naruto. We’ve all known. We’ve...always known.”

Naruto sat facing his comrades, and what seemed like a harmless get together was turning very confrontational very fast. They were all there; Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Sai, Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Lee, TenTen, Neji...even Hinata, though she looked as though she wanted to be anywhere else. Kakashi was somewhere in their midst, in a tree or something. 

A sharp breeze whipped across Naruto’s face, and forced him to close his eyes. He balled his fist tight and brought his other hand up to where his heart would have been. He could feel it, beating hard and fast, so fast that he wondered if he was the only one who could hear it. A chill was going up his spine that had nothing to do with the weather. 

“So..you’re saying. You’re saying that, you all have always known that I—that we..” The words were too hard to repeat. His eyes were still closed but he released his hands and let them fall to his sides.

_ You guys have always known the way that I feel about Sasuke _ . The words were in his mind, in his heart, on his tongue, but he could never say them again. At the simple thought of Sasuke, Naruto’s mind was on a whirl. Where was Sasuke? What was he doing? Would he ever come back?  _ Yes _ , Naruto answered himself.  _ He’ll be back, because I’m going to bring him back. _

“...Seen it from the moment he left,” Neji was saying in his sage-like voice. Naruto opened his eyes then, and surveyed everyone there before focusing again. Shikamaru was talking. 

“There are things we would all do for our comrades, things any one of us would do to save the others. From evil, from danger, from failure. But you...you’ve made it your only purpose to save Sasuke from himself.” Shikamaru regarded Naruto with subtle judgement. It made Naruto’s eyebrows draw in. 

A large gust of wind came then, and Kakashi was standing over them all. Never before had Naruto had felt so small when being addressed by his sensei. “We’ve all seen it, Naruto. It’s in the way you talk about him. The determination you’ve shown to bring him back. All the times you’ve told us that you never give up. Never giving up on him. No matter what you say, we know you’ve forgiven him for joining up with Orochimaru. What else could that be?”

Naruto looked up at Kakashi as he spoke, but had to turn his eyes back down to the grass when he felt the threat of tears. 

They were right, of course. Sitting here in this grass with them all, Naruto knew that they were right. For years,  _ years _ , the only thing in his mind was bringing Sasuke back, Sasuke’s well being, Sasuke’s safety, Sasuke’s feelings. He had been on a nonstop loop of  _ Sasuke Sasuke Sasuke _ for years, a large part of his life. 

He fisted the grass in both hands. There were words that he wanted to say, needed to say to protect himself, but he couldn’t. There wasn’t a single lie he could tell. Clearly, they’d all seen through him long before he’d even known himself.

He thought about all the stare downs, the color of Sasuke’s eyes, the evil he saw there, and the feelings that always fluttered his heart when it was just the two of them. He thought of the times they had tried to kill one another, and the times they’d spent training together, and the times spent at Ichiraku with Sakura between them and Kakashi on either end. Memories, moments, things that made him cry when he thought about them.

His first rival, his best friend, the man that he loved. Naruto loved Sasuke. Loves him now. Wants him here, in Konoha where he belongs. In the past, he’d been doing it to help everyone else out. Everyone needed Sasuke back, for their own reasons. Sakura and Ino were in love with him; he had intel and secrets about the village as well as the Uchiha clan; he was the sole survivor of the Uchihas, which at this point was only a trophy for the village and less of something that actually mattered. Still, people wanted Sasuke back, too. Naruto had, up until this point, been a vessel for their needs, much in the same way that he had been a vessel for Kurama’s evil for a long time, or a vessel for the village’s pain. It was just something he was doing to fulfill his role of hero.

But now, sitting here in his own silence, crying, Naruto knew the truth. He was the only one who truly  _ needed _ Sasuke. He needed Sasuke like he needed air, like he needed ramen, like he needed life. Sasuke was his life. Sasuke was the only thing Naruto had, the only thing that gave him a purpose. His whole life revolved around two things: becoming Hokage, and bringing Sasuke back home. Sasuke made him better in all aspects. He was a better friend because of him, and a better ninja. Where would Naruto be if he’d never met Sasuke? He shuddered to think about it.

“It’s...alright, Naruto. No one here is faulting you, or judging you, for feeling the way that you do. We get it, ok?” Sakura’s voice was the last one he’d expect to hear. He looked up at her soft green eyes, even though his face was streaked with tears. There was nothing he could or ever would want to hide from her. She had probably seen it first. She closed her eyes then in a smile. 

“S-so what? Why does this..what’s the point of this?” It hurt enough to realize it. To realize it in front of a group, in front of people that he had known his whole life? Something entirely different. A look of concern flashed across every face sitting before Naruto. It made his heart feel like ice, his blood felt cold. There couldn’t… there was no way.

“What is the point of this?” Naruto repeated, harsher. Ino and Hinata winced at his tone. Kiba cleared his throat. Naruto had never seen him without a smile on his face. He felt the blood draining from his own. 

“We all came together to talk to you, because we received some intel on Sasuke. It seems that he’s killed Itachi,” Kiba said. Akamaru was lying next to him, asleep, oblivious to the severity of the words his master had just uttered. 

Naruto’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “That’s...thats a good thing, right? He was evil, Itachi. He killed the whole clan, he deserted the Leaf, he joined the Akatsuki.” Instantly, the only thing in his mind was rationalizing Sasuke’s decision. There was no wrong that Sasuke could do. 

Shino’s voice came then, slightly muffled by the way he wore his collar over his mouth. “It’s not that simple, Naruto. Sasuke...is a part of the Akatsuki now. His mission is the same as theirs, as far as we know.” 

“That means that he’s looking for jinchūriki now, too?”

“It would seem so.”

Broken.  _ Crushed.  _ All over Naruto’s body he felt heat, scorching heat underneath his clothes. His face turned up to the sky and he let himself cry then, freely. What else was he supposed to do? How else was he supposed to feel? He was embarrassed, somewhere in the back of his mind, but all of a sudden he couldn’t see anyone else. 

Kurama’s voice rang deep and raspy in his consciousness. Naruto knew he was inside his own mind, speaking with the Nine-Tails. He kept his eyes closed in his kneeling position.

“He’s going to come after you,” Kurama was saying. Naruto curled his hand into a fist again. “No, he’s going to be coming after  _ you _ .  _ You’re _ the reason that everything is so… so bad. So messed up. He’s going to come, after they get to the Eight-Tails, and he’s going to fight me. He’s going to try to kill me. Again.” 

Kurama growled behind his massive gate and shifted so that he was eyeing Naruto directly. “So? He is no match. You have the power of the Kyuubi, greater strength than he will ever possess. You don’t need to fear him.” 

“I don’t fear him,” Naruto corrected. “I love him. And I’m tired of fighting him, defending my life against him. I just want him back, for good. I want everyone to forgive him the way I forgave him. He is… he is everything to me. I don’t know who I am without him.” Naruto had opened his eyes while he spoke, fixing Kurama with a glare that he hoped held all of the words he was trying to work through. 

If Sasuke came for him, he’d have to fight for his life again. They’d had nearly fatal fights plenty of times, he was used to that. In the past, they’d fought to test their vessels, to prove a point, and more recently, Naruto’s purpose was to bring Sasuke back. This would be a completely different realm. Sasuke would try to beat him until he was too weak to resist, and then bring him to the Akatsuki like some animal, like some  _ thing _ that didn’t matter.

And despite the fact that Naruto would fight back, he knew in his heart that he didn’t have it in him to kill Sasuke. It wasn’t even a plausible sequence of events in his mind. He’d never be capable of doing it, not really. And in his weakness, his hesitation, his state of heightened emotions, Kurama would probably take him over, and then Sasuke would die. Sasuke would die. He would lose. No powers bestowed upon him by Orochimaru or developed on his own could be bested by the Kurama’s full power; they hadn’t yet, at least.

“You won’t kill him.” Naruto shook his head. “Why? What is love? What does love have to do with survival? Look at your peers, your predecessors. The ones who have chosen love have either died or live in misery. Your sensei, miserable. Your master, dead. Your friends, miserable. Your parents—”

“No. Do not speak on my parents. You killed them.” 

Kurama lashed out at the sealed gate, rattling bars futilely. Naruto smirked at him. “You’re going to die if you don’t kill him! They’re going to extract me, and then you’ll die. You don’t care about death? He may kill you on accident when you fight. You can’t win! Love doesn’t  _ win _ ! It’s a fallacy, boy. A farce. You’re asking to die if you stand before the Uchiha boy and tell him that you won’t kill him because you  _ love  _ him.”

Naruto stood and turned his back to the fox. “I will always choose my comrades. Before anything, Sasuke is my comrade, my teammate, my best friend. And I won’t give up. That’s my ninja way. You know that.” 

Naruto’s breath ripped out of him in a ragged gasp as he came back to himself. He’d lied down on the grass, flat on his back; he’d probably fallen that way when he blacked out. His friends were watching him with concern, and out of his periphery he could see Captain Yamato. Kakashi had probably called him when it was clear something was going on with the Tailed Beast. 

“Naruto—?” Sakura’s confused voice roused him. He stood abruptly, and was flashing them all that characteristic smile of his. 

“Don’t worry about me,” Naruto said. “I’ll be fine. Just because they’re coming after me doesn’t mean they’re going to get me.” He gave them all a thumbs up. 

“If it’s a fight they want, it’s a fight they’ll get!”


	4. Satomi and Her Terrible, Awful, No Good Crush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Satomi is a normal girl, totally. It’s just that her parents are Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just kinda wanted to do some one shots in my other AU, and i still might idk

“Yeah, so, I told him to call me sometime, but I didn’t really mean it,” Inoko said. She was seated on Satomi’s bed, with her fingers threading into Satomi’s short, jet black hair. She was braiding it while she told the story of how Naku had asked her about her outfit, and then said he wanted to talk more about it. “But, get this,” Inoko said, her voice like a bell. “He walked me all the way home. He’s lucky that only Mama was there, because Haha wouldn’t have been too pleased to see me with a boy.” Yes, Satomi reasoned with herself, Obasan Sakura wouldn’t have let Inoko live that down any time soon. She probably wouldn’t have even been allowed to come over tonight.

Something tugged on Satomi’s heart, just the way Inoko’s fingers tugged at her hair. “Mm, so you like him or something?” Satomi couldn’t help the disappointment trickling into her voice. Inoko scoffed, and in her full length mirror that sat above her bureau, Satomi saw her shake her head. “Oh, no, no. He smelled like a dog.” Satomi laughed nervously. Why did that matter, anyway, whether or not Inoko liked him? It wouldn’t, Satomi told herself. She was forced to look at their reflections, or else she would have watched her fingers as they turned over in her lap. 

Satomi had been trying to entice Inoko into rivalry for months now. She needed something to get her mind off of her home life, and she also needed an incentive to hone her skills. Inoko, though, was only interested in hair clips and ponytail holders and purses and skirts and dresses and makeup and nail polish and flowers. And, not to say that Satomi wasn’t into those things, she  _ was,  _ but she didn’t really have time for that right now. Everything was sort of crazy in her life, so she didn’t have time to do her hair or take baths every night or not rewear her clothes if they didn’t smell too bad.

Obasan Sakura and Ino had been married for less than ten months, but that was all exciting. The planning for it had been extensive, and it had been a grand event, because of Ino’s bridezilla tendencies. Satomi had learned that word from Touchan, but he made her promise not to say it around Inoko, because Ino would be livid. Anyway, it had taken a year to plan the wedding, and then the day itself had been exhausting from beginning to end. She’d been woken up early, only to be made to sit and be touched and styled for hours. Then, she couldn’t  _ eat  _ the whole time, until the very end, and she had to stay awake, Sasuke had warned her with eyes that edged past stern and went right over to scary. Satomi had chalked it up to Sasuke being emotional, since he was pregnant, but she still sat and watched and paid attention like a good girl. The only solace in the whole day was that she and Inoko had gotten to wear matching dresses and have their hair styled the same way, and that they’d gotten to sit close to one another. 

But, it’d been exciting for all of one day before her brother had been born. Oba Ino had been mad that attention had been diverted from their union, but Sakura was all over him. Papa had been so tired, and he was still tired, even though at this point Kaito was a lot older, and ten months seemed like a while ago to Satomi. Papa was sleepy all the time, and barely listened to her when she tried to tell him stories about her missions. He never wanted to do anything except sleep, or be with Biscuit, or paint. Then, he even stopped painting. Naruto grew more worried about Sasuke with every passing day. It wasn’t like Sasuke, he’d tell Oba Sakura. All Papa did was stay at home, week in and week out, watching over the house and Kaito. Sure, he was cute, but she was annoyed with all the attention he required. She knew that  _ she  _ hadn’t been such a needy baby. Still, despite her misgivings, Satomi knew that Sasuke didn’t like it either, being confined to the house. She’d heard the stories of his heroism, of his great prowess and all of the ninja arts that he was a master of. She loved telling people that she was Uchiha Satomi, and that she was the future of the clan, brought about through her father’s amazing strength and perseverance. This wasn’t like him, or; it wasn’t like the Sasuke that Satomi had built up in her head.

Oba Sakura had come to the house and told Satomi’s parents that Sasuke had “post-parted depression,” or something like that. She’d been listening from the landing of the second floor while hiding herself, so she didn’t really know if she’d heard it right. But she had heard Oba Sakura tell Papa to, “Acquaint yourself with him thoroughly. Look at him, and kiss him, and talk to him. It’s important. You have to get fresh air, too, and Naruto, make sure that he isn’t alone too much. This isn’t your fault, or anyone’s fault. And you  _ can  _ do it, you’re one of the strongest men I know, Sasuke. I promise, it will get better.” And Satomi heard Sakura thank Sasuke, for telling her. She had teared up, but Naruto’s face was stoic. Satomi had never seen his face so… static, so devoid of emotion. Whatever this was, it was serious, and it was adult business. She wasn’t meant to know about it. But she still told Inoko about it, and asked her what she should do to try to help. 

Inoko shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know what to tell you.” Her blonde hair was slung over her shoulder in a low hanging ponytail, like Oba Sakura would wear her hair. “I think it’s sad, that Oji Sasuke is sad. Kaito is cute! And he doesn’t ever cry. I would be happy if he was my baby.” Satomi sighed. Inoko finished Satomi’s braid, and Satomi joined her on the bed. They both sat with their backs to the headboard in a moment of silence. 

“But,” Inoko finally said, making Satomi take in a sharp breath and turn her head to face Inoko. She held her cheek in her hand as she looked at Satomi. “We’re just, you know, kids. We don’t know about grown up stuff. I can’t imagine having a baby, or two! And they’re still shinobi, your parents. Oji Naruto is Hokage! He’s busy, and Oji Sasuke has you to take care of, and Kaito, and he still does missions sometimes. Maybe it’s… just, the stress, of having a family but also wanted to protect the village. Because the village was their first family. Especially Oji Sasuke.”

Satomi didn’t really know what Inoko meant by it; she’d always been the wiser of the two of them, despite the way she presented herself. That was what Satomi liked about her the most, that she always knew what to say, and she always knew what she was talking about, even if Satomi didn’t. Satomi nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense,” she said, even though it hadn’t made a lick of sense to her. 

Inoko smiled then. “Yeah? Can we go see him?”

“Papa?” Satomi chewed her lip. He didn’t really  like company, even her or Naruto sometimes. Sasuke had started sleeping in one of the spare rooms, on the nights when everyone’s attention was too much. Or he’d drag a spare crib into the room, and it would just be the two of them. With the dog, of course. Sasuke never rejected the dog, Satomi thought with a bitterness. 

“No, no,” Inoko said, shaking her head. “Your brother.”

“Oh. Yeah, if he isn’t with Touchan.”

Satomi led the way down the stairs first, where she saw Sasuke was painting at one end of the kitchen table and Naruto was poring over some scrolls at the opposite end. Naruto looked up when she came within his earshot. His face broke into a wide smile, the same one that always made Satomi feel so special. She couldn’t help returning it. 

“Joji! Mei Inoko! Let me see your hair!” He stood and Satomi went to him. He wrapped his arms around her easily, like a habit, and then one of his hands came up to twist into her hair. “You get better at this every time, Inoko,” Naruto said, directing his smile towards her. “Did you do her hair, Satomi?”

Satomi shook her head with a small pout. “No, she never lets me, because I’m no good.”

Inoko smirked slightly. “She’s exaggerating,” she said coolly. Satomi’s eyes drifted to Sasuke, who was focusing intently on his canvas. Her shoulders sagged slightly. He never paid attention to her anymore, but, she reasoned, at least he was down here, being present, even if he wasn’t  _ really  _ there. 

“We were just hoping to spend some time with Kaito?” Inoko said, and she didn’t ask anyone in particular, but Satomi still jumped when she heard Sasuke’s voice from the other end of the table. 

“As long as he’s not asleep,” he said as a way of giving them permission. Satomi watched him as he spoke, not looking up at them, still flicking his wrist across the canvas as if he wasn’t even talking. It made her feel cold on the inside. 

Inoko’s bubbly laugh was enough to shake Satomi. “Thank you, Oji Sasuke, Oji Naruto! We won’t be too loud or too rough.” Sasuke and Naruto nodded in turn. Naruto pressed a kiss to Satomi’s forehead before shooing her away. She was about to run back up the stairs, but then Sasuke called out to her.

“Wait.”

Sasuke’s voice was still so stiff. Satomi stopped in her tracks and turned on her heel. He was watching her, his eyes intent and yet empty. He’d set his paintbrush down, and gestured for her to come closer. She obliged him, leaving Inoko to stand and wait patiently. Sasuke’s arms around her was Satomi’s favorite sensation; it was always so bittersweet. She didn’t know when would be the last time he’d hug her, so she always made sure to drag it on for as long as possible. Sasuke’s chin hooked over her head, and she felt like she fit perfectly there. He was breathing a little shakily, but Satomi pretended not to notice. 

“I love you,” he said, his voice a rumble where Satomi’s ear was pressed to his chest. She felt weird, hearing it, like it was just another story, something about Sasuke that she’d just have to take his word for. Something make believe. 

She nodded against his chest, mumbled an “I love you too, Papa,” in reply, and then he pulled away. His hands rested on her shoulders and he studied her intently. There was emotion in his eyes now, something deep and powerful that Satomi didn’t have a word to describe. She felt his fingers come up her neck to cradle her head, and she leaned into it. Despite how few and far between, his little touches were always so familiar and made her so happy. Then Sasuke smiled at her, a real, soft smile, and he told her he was proud of her. 

“Run along, now,” Sasuke said, releasing Satomi and taking all of his warmth with him. She shuffled back over to Inoko, who then took her hand and led her up the stairs. They didn’t talk about it, they probably wouldn’t for a while. Inoko had a habit of psycho-analyzing Satomi whenever something out of the ordinary happened, but it took her a few days. Instead, they padded softly down the hallway, taking great care not to make too much noise, and into Kaito’s nursery. 

He was awake, and when they came into the room his eyes went straight to them. Satomi’s heart always felt crazy when she looked at him. She loved him, so dearly, but she resented him deeply. Before him, both Papa and Touchan were just plain  _ happy.  _ They paid attention to her and her only. They talked to her every day, and asked her things about her day, and hugged her, and took her out to eat and shopping and to spend time with her aunts and uncles; everyone in the village was Naruto’s friend, it seemed, and their positive feelings toward him extended down to her easily. Her parents read her stories and  _ told  _ her stories of their lives and families and adventures, together and apart. Satomi hadn’t known what she’d had, until became obvious that Sasuke was pregnant again. Since even before Kaito was born, he’d been leeching the attention and affection.

It began the moment they knew, really. Satomi had seen Sasuke in the kitchen, looking the picture of angst. He was clutching the countertop with one hand and he had something slender and white in his other. 

“Papa?”

When he heard her voice, he panicked slightly before realizing who’d spoken. “Joji,” he whispered, drawing her to him. Satomi’s face stuck into the inside of one of Sasuke’s arms.

“Are you okay?” she asked after he’d let her go. 

Sasuke nodded, looked at the white thing in his hand again, and then shook his head with a low sigh. “No,” he said finally. “I have to tell you something,” he said, and he kneeled so that he and Satomi were at face level. Satomi watched as Sasuke laid his hand across her shoulder. This was a serious talk, she could feel it.

“You know that your father and I love one another very much, right?” Satomi nodded, and then tilted her head. She didn’t know what Sasuke was getting at. “It was that love for one another that created you, and everyday I am so glad that you are here. And… we never stopped loving one another, obviously. And now, now our love for one another has created something— someone else.” Sasuke watched Satomi then, his eyes hopeful. Hopeful that she understood. 

“So…” 

Satomi let her voice trail off. She first looked to where she knew Sasuke’s belly was, and then back up to meet his eyes. He gave a small nod, and then his other hand came up so that he had a grip on both of her shoulders. “I know that this is really pressing, and I  _ know  _ that I have to tell him but I… want it to be the right way. So you have to promise me.” Sasuke’s voice was stern, but when he reached out and offered Satomi his pinky, she almost giggled. “You have to promise me, on your will as a kunoichi, that you won’t tell him before I do.” Satomi’s eyes cut to Sasuke’s extended finger and she gave him hers without hesitation. 

“I promise, Papa!” Then Sasuke kissed her forehead and sent her away, and he remained in the kitchen fretting over the thing in his hand.

Telling Naruto had been an accident, really. Satomi hadn’t set out to break her promise; promises were, after all, the most important thing to her. Especially after Naruto had told her about his promise to Oba Sakura and the village, and how he’d also promised himself. But sometimes, she didn’t think before she spoke. 

“And then, we’ll have to go shopping again,” Satomi said, as she rifled her fingers through Biscuit’s fur. They were discussing very important things, like how they’d wrap Oba Sakura and Oba Ino’s wedding gifts. The time was drawing near, but Satomi was distracted from it. Oba Sakura had told Satomi and Sasuke that it was a  _ boy _ , and as soon as Sakura had left Sasuke was imploring Satomi once again to promise not to say anything. Sasuke was somewhere upstairs, sleeping, like he always did. Naruto’s hands were in Satomi’s hair, and his tongue was sticking out of the side of his mouth as he focused on clipping her hair up. “Shopping? For what?” 

Biscuit’s ears lifted and he looked like he was about to say something, but Satomi just kept talking. “For wrapping paper, and for a new rattle, and clothes and shoes,” she said. She felt Naruto’s fingers still in her hair. “Rattle?” The confusion in his voice told Satomi she’d gone too far. 

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean—”

“A rattle for who? Clothes, shoes?”

Satomi shook her head. “No, no, it’s for no one!” She shot up from the sofa, jostling Biscuit in the process. 

“Satomi.” 

She winced.  _ He  _ never said her name like that, only Papa. Touchan’s hand went to his hip and he tapped his foot, waiting. “Who’s it for?” Hearing him ask was worse; Sasuke would just level her with a single look and she’d be vomiting the truth. Naruto meant to draw it out of her painfully, with his voice. Whenever he wore his Hokage robe, Satomi couldn’t lie to him.

Satomi’s eyes were on her toes as she kicked at the rug. Oh, how she wished that she could disappear, or teleport like she’d heard The Fourth Hokage could. Her hands were behind her back, and her fingers twisted in knots. Satomi took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Ok…” 

“Papa told me, and he made me promise not to tell you, but. He said that I’m gonna have a brother.” Satomi didn’t look at Naruto for a while, afraid that he would be angry. It wasn’t like him to lose his temper, so when she heard him sniffling she looked up in a hurry. And… and Naruto was  _ crying,  _ wiping vainly at his eyes. He was smiling too, which caused Satomi to tilt her head. “Touchan?” She thought he’d be happy? She was slightly shocked that he’d be crying (she didn’t understand emotions as well as she thought she did).

Suddenly she was swept up in a crushing embrace, and Naruto was kissing her forehead and her cheeks and her eyelids and her hair and her ears and her lips and her nose, everywhere. “A baby? A  _ boy!  _ A boy, really, Satomi? How does he know?”

“Oh, well, Oba Sakura told him two weeks ago about that part, she came over while you were doing Hokage stuff, and told me and Papa that it was a boy, so I think he’d gone to see her?” Satomi shrugged when Naruto finally relinquished his tight hold on her. She was still taken aback by the way that Naruto was crying. 

“He told me not to tell you, Touchan, so you have to act like you don’t know anything about it, please, please!” 

Useless. Naruto was already running around, ripping the house up, trying to find Sasuke. Satomi slumped back onto the sofa in defeat. She didn’t even watch as Naruto thundered up the stairs, yelling out, “Otto, Otto!” Satomi’s face was in her hands while her elbows rested on her knees. She knew it was coming.

A pause in the commotion, and then Satomi heard Sasuke yell her name. Everything in the house changed after that. Everything was about Papa, about making sure that he and the baby were well rested and well fed and hydrated and exercised and had their nutrients. No loud noise, Inoko could only come over twice a week now, and they didn’t pay attention to her anymore. No more questions about her day or her missions, no more shopping, no more going out to eat. Everything was the baby, the baby, the baby. Then, when Sasuke gave birth to Kaito, what little attention they’d been giving Satomi was completely gone, because on top of the baby, now Sasuke was sick.

Satomi watched her brother as he watched her. Despite all this, all the attention that she didn’t feel like he deserved, she did love him. He was very interesting, she could not pretend. Satomi thought Kaito looked a lot more like Touchan than Papa. He had red hair, which Touchan had told her was characteristic of the Uzumaki clan; Sobo Kushina had had it, and so did all of the other Uzumakis he’d ever met or heard of. Kaito had blue eyes just as she did, but he had the lines on his face that Satomi lacked. He was quite large, a lot bigger than he’d been when he was first born. Satomi marveled at how  _ big  _ he was getting. 

Inoko did, too. “He’s kind of huge.” It made Satomi laugh. She was always afraid to touch him because of how her parents acted about him. They spoke about him like he was glass, and that just blowing on him would break him. Still, she had permission to lift him from where he lay, so she did. He was just as heavy as he looked. However, Satomi was used to his weight because she was holding him as much as she could. She loved the feel of him, and he always clutched onto her shirts. He smiled at her, with his five teeth, and reached for her shirt as he always did.

“What d’you think is going on in his head?” Inoko was looking over her shoulder at Kaito’s face. 

Satomi cradled him closer and shrugged. “I don’t know. Our parents, maybe? We’re the only ones he sees, besides your parents. And Biscuit.” Satomi lost her train of thought when Kaito started babbling. He did it more and more, as of late, and Naruto always told her to tell them when he was doing it; something about how he was bound to say his first words at any moment. 

But Satomi forgot about it, like she forgot about most things. When Satomi and Inoko spoke, Kaito seemed to understand them. He stopped pulling Inoko’s hair when they said, “No,” and when they said “Hi!” he would wave at them. Satomi and Inoko sat on the floor in the middle of the room with Kaito still being held to Satomi’s chest. They gazed at him, taking in every little thing he did. Satomi couldn’t hate him when his blue eyes caught hers. Satomi let him onto the floor, and he started wiggling around the way he always did. 

“Isn’t he precious? Like, look at him.” Inoko’s voice was usually so tinkly, but it was soft now. “I wish I had a brother. Or a sister… a baby in the house. But Mama and Haha are both so busy doing stuff.” Inoko sighed. “They don’t have time for it.” 

Satomi nodded. Oba Sakura was head of the hospital; every doctor and nurse reported to her. Sometimes, she went out with Papa on high stakes missions that required adept healers. Mostly, though, she spent her time teaching the next generation. Oba Ino was in charge of analytics and surveillance of the whole village, and the only people above her were the ANBU captain and Touchan. For sure, Inoko’s parents were especially busy. 

“I wish that  _ my  _ parents had realized that they didn’t have any time for it, either.” Satomi felt the bitterness coming back in tides; it ebbed and flowed, because every few minutes she looked at Kaito again, crawling in between her and Inoko, and it went away. “I mean, I love him, he’s cute. He makes me happy, sometimes. Most of the time. And he makes Touchan happy, all the time. Every time he sees him. But, Papa never seems happy anymore. He’s stressed out, and it wouldn’t have happened if they’d just not had him.” Satomi pouted. Maybe she wasn’t  _ meant  _ to understand this, but she couldn’t help but try to. And her understanding was a negative one.

Inoko ran her hand over Kaito’s bright red head as he wobbled his way over to her. “It will be ok. Haha says that Oji Sasuke will be happy soon. I heard her telling Mama.” 

Satomi’s eyes got bright. “Really? She really said that?” Maybe there was hope, that their family would be back to the way it was.

“Yeah, she said that a few weeks ago.”

“But, what will happen when he’s old enough to go on missions? They’re gonna forget about me.”

Inoko hummed and pulled Kaito’s fingers delicately from her ponytail. “They’ll forget about you a long time before that, I think. He’s already got teeth, soon he’ll be talking real words, and then he’ll walk, too.” 

Satomi’s eyebrows drew together and she sighed. “Yes, I guess you’re right.” And then, what was the point? If Papa and Touchan were going to forget about her, what was the point of trying to get any better? There wasn’t. 

Kaito sat up when Inoko pulled him onto her lap. She wrapped her arms around him and placed one of her hands on his head again. “Hey, Tomi? Remember how you asked me to be your rival?” 

Satomi looked up from Kaito’s chubby face. “Yeah?” 

Inoko’s pretty face broke into a pretty smile. Satomi’s heart did a flip. All for me, she thought, all for me. “Well… I’ve been thinking about it, a lot. And at first, I honestly wanted to say no.” Satomi’s eyebrow quirked. 

“Why?”

Inoko shrugged. “Well, if we were training all the time, when would we ever shop? Or talk about boys? Or play with your brother?” Inoko held one of Kaito’s hands as she spoke. “But then I realized that I was being selfish. My life is kind of perfect, I never have anything to worry about. My parents, uh. They pay attention to me,” she said. Her eyes held an emotion Satomi didn’t have a name for, not yet. Inoko would know better than her. 

“I changed my mind. I know that I don’t have things to worry about besides doing my hair and making myself cute, but you do. You have real things you’re worrying about, like your parents, and your brother. And your skills, obviously, I guess I’m worried about my skills some, too. So, I want to help you get your mind off of this, and everything in general. Plus, I can tell that you’re not really interested in me talking about fashion anymore. I’ll be your rival.”

Was it really that easy? They didn’t have a grudge, and the more Satomi thought about it, the less she really wanted to label their relationship as a ‘rivalry’. Still, she was grateful for Inoko. Only she could sense what Satomi needed and be the one person who could help her. Satomi gave a nervous breath. Despite the logic in her thoughts, her excitement was taking over. “Really?!” 

Kaito’s hands clapped together when he saw Satomi getting excited. Inoko nodded, just a slight move of her neck. “Yes, I mean it.” Her smile made Satomi feel jittery. After another twenty minutes of just sitting and talking, Kaito started whining, so Satomi hoisted him up and took him with her downstairs to Sasuke. Kaito always wanted to see Sasuke first.

“Papa? He wants something.” Satomi held her brother on her hip and came to where Sasuke sat, still painting. Naruto was gone now, doing Hokage things. Inoko went into the living room, probably gathering her things as she prepared herself to leave. 

Sasuke looked up from his canvas and gave Satomi a small smile. “Does he? Let me see.” 

Sasuke stood and took Kaito into his arms. Satomi watched them for a long moment with her hands behind her back before turning away and joining Inoko on the couch. “Going home?” 

Inoko nodded. “I should be home for dinner tonight, or else Mama will be super mad. She’s been cooking lately, and she wants Haha and I to try everything she makes. It isn’t that she can’t cook. More like… I wish she could cook a little better?” Satomi laughed. Oba Ino took everything very seriously, Satomi could only imagine. 

“Well, alright. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Inoko nodded as she stood and dusted herself off. “Yeah, tomorrow. Rival.” Inoko offered Satomi a wink, and then she was gone. Satomi always felt a small void when Inoko left, even though she knew she was going to see her soon again. She missed her all the same.

Satomi went back up to her room then, and cleaned up all of the hair clips and bows and brushes and combs. She thought more about her feelings about her family. She decided that she didn’t hate Kaito, no matter how jealous of him she was, and how he’d essentially stolen their parents’ love and affection from her. He deserved it, she reasoned. He needed it more than she did. She was almost a grown up, she shouldn’t be worrying so much about if her fathers were paying attention to her. And, she knew that despite him being the root of Sasuke’s sickness, Kaito still did a lot more good for the lot of them than bad. 

Then, Satomi thought about Inoko. They’d always written one another letters, to express their feelings of deep friendship in words, but she was starting to feel something else. She was going to go with ‘obsession.’ She only ever wanted to be around Inoko, know what she was doing, who she was with, when she’d see her again. It was a little disheartening, given that Inoko rarely seemed as interested in  _ her  _ doings, but. Inoko was worried about a lot of different other things, like she’d said.

Satomi fretted over what Inoko had told her when she’d been braiding Satomi’s hair.  _ Naku  _ was trying to be Inoko’s friend, and Satomi decided that she hated that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bonus points if you can guess who Naku’s dad is!!!


	5. Only Fools Rush In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> meant to be a song fic based on the lines of “can’t help falling in love”. this is of the first few:
> 
> wise men say  
> only fools rush in  
> but i can’t help   
> falling in love with you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one actually is finished haha it was meant to have other parts but i never got around to em

They went too fast from the very beginning. 

All Naruto knew was that he loved that man. He loved him today, he had loved him yesterday, he would love him tomorrow. Forever. For the rest of his existence. In past lives. In future lives. Right this  _ second _ .

Loving Sasuke felt as easy as drawing in air. As simple as turning his head up to the sky to take in the sun. There was nothing easier, nothing less hard to do. 

His mother had told him, so long ago, that love took time. She had taken her time with his father. Naruto hadn’t really been listening to her as she combed his hair, but now he remembered. 

“Only fools rush in,” Kushina had told him in a soft voice. “I waited for your father, and he waited for me. It’s time that makes love grow. Time and patience.” Naruto had squirmed and complained that she was combing too hard. 

That had been decades ago. His parents had passed long ago, but he had never forgotten their love. It had been easy, simple. Conventional. Built on time, and patience.

But Naruto did not want to wait, and he was not patient. 

“I just think…”

They were watching the stars, laying next to each other in the dirt. Sasuke’s voice was nearly whipped away by the wind. 

“What do you think?”

Sasuke craned his neck to look at Naruto with his full, dark eyes. Even in the dark, Naruto could see the sentiment there. Something in his chest was attempting to claw free. He wanted to say it, he wanted so badly to just breathe the words. 

They had only known each other for three months. They met at work, of all the stupid places. Naruto was new to the office, and Sasuke had deigned to show him the ropes. Sasuke had showed him the copy machine. Naruto had wanted to touch him  _ then,  _ as he stood over the ancient machine and explained all of its parts.

Sasuke had showed Naruto the break room. Naruto had barely been able to concentrate on what Sasuke had been saying; he was far too busy  _ watching  _ Sasuke speak. He talked with his hands. He had such pretty hair. Such a gentle voice. Sad eyes, when he looked at Naruto and asked him if he was listening. 

“Oh, yeah. You said something about the vending machines and writing my name on my food.” 

Sasuke had laughed. Naruto had died.

In the span of time since then, every day, every hour, every minute, every second, Naruto had thought about Sasuke. He wanted to know everything about him. He wanted to know why the corners of Sasuke’s mouth turned down when he thought no one was watching. Why he never smiled, why he never laughed. What went on in his mind. What would make him warm up to Naruto. What would keep him at Naruto’s side forever.

Sasuke, for his part, didn’t seem sick of Naruto, either. Of course, sometimes he declined when Naruto asked him out; but Naruto eventually learned why. 

“I’m an introvert,” Sasuke had explained over some homemade dinner. It was rice and fish. Sasuke had been so excited to invite Naruto over, to try his cooking for the first time, three weeks and a day after they had met. It reminded Naruto of his father, the way Sasuke took pride in his cooking.

“So, what’s that mean?” Naruto set his fork down. They were sitting on the floor with their backs pressed to Sasuke’s sofa. It was a lot better, more intimate, than sitting on the couch itself. Plus, it made for more effective use of the coffee table as a dinner table.

“It  _ means _ ,” Sasuke said, taking a long sip of his wine, “that I get energy from being alone. So it isn’t that I don’t  _ want  _ to be around you. I just want to be alone sometimes.” 

Naruto nodded. He wouldn’t take offense to it anymore. 

He learned so many things about Sasuke in the three months that had passed since the Tuesday they had met. Sasuke liked to cook. Cooking was his passion. Sasuke was a passionate person, in general. He had had a family once, but they were all gone. His brother had been his idol. He had died of a lung thing, Sasuke never allowed himself to remember the name. When his parents died he started working hard, to keep his mind off of his loss. He had worked hard to move up at the company. He liked dogs. He enjoyed fine art. 

He had soft skin. He had even softer lips. Naruto was in love with him. He let his mind wander to the first time he had touched Sasuke. The first time he’d kissed him, the first time he’d heard him exhale in a shaky sigh, the first time he’d  _ felt  _ Sasuke. He was hopeless. This was hopeless.

“What do you think, Sasuke?”

Naruto breathed in deep, the scent of the flowers around them filling his nose. He could also smell Sasuke. He smelled like dark things; the night time, and pomegranates.

“I think that I love you. And I am terrified of that,” Sasuke finally said. He was whispering, but Naruto heard every word.

“What?” Naruto sat up. Sasuke did, too, and reached over to swipe some flowers from Naruto’s hair. His hand stayed in Naruto’s hair a little longer than necessary.

“I love you,” Sasuke repeated, a lot more seriously this time. “I love you, but I am afraid.” Then Sasuke drew his lip between his teeth.

“Why are you afraid?” Naruto felt like he might explode. Surely his face was red. More red the Sasuke’s favorite tie, the one he reserved for special occasions.

“Because,” Sasuke mumbled. “Everything I’ve ever loved is gone. And I don’t want you to be gone, too. And it’s… it’s so soon, you know? We’ve only known each other for, what, a few months?”

77 days, but. “Yes, a few months, I guess.”

Sasuke took his hand from Naruto’s hair then. He wrapped his arms around his knees, which he had drawn up to his chest. 

“I love you,” Naruto said, “I love you and I am  _ not  _ afraid. Because I’ve never been more certain of anything in my entire life. Every day, every second, I am thinking about you. Hoping to be next to you again. Hoping to speak to you again. Just hoping that you… felt the same way.” Naruto sighed.

Sasuke smiled. He even  _ laughed _ . Naruto felt something in him blossom. “You do? That’s so…” Sasuke’s voice trailed off and he hummed into his knees. 

“It’s so what?”

Sasuke shrugged. “We’re insane. A few months, and we love each other?”

But Naruto didn’t have to question it. There had never been a question to him. He had thought he’d been in love before, but he had been sorely mistaken. 

He had tried with the girl with pink hair in high school. He had loved her since he was small. She had known. She hadn’t felt the same way for a long time, but she’d realized the reason she had been so mean to him was because she wanted him to pay attention to her. They had been very volatile together. Breaking up, making up, on and off. He had loved her so  _ intensely _ . There was always fire behind the things she did, whether they hurt him or not. She had broken his heart when she had moved away for college. 

He has found solace in the girl with the purple hair, when he was getting his business degree. She was an art major. They had been safe. Boring. They never fought. There was never any conflict. She did whatever he wanted her to. When he told her to come, she came. When he told her to leave, she left. He could have told her to stop breathing, and she would have done it.

Naruto didn’t have to question the way he felt this time. There had been no time and no patience, and that’s why it was right. If they had waited any longer, maybe neither of them would have said anything.

“I’ve loved you from the first day we met,” Naruto admitted. There was no uncertainty in his voice.

“What?”

“I loved you the first moment I saw you. When I heard your name. When I saw you, your hair, your eyes, your smile. When you showed me around. I was so lost in you, already.” Naruto thought he might have started flying when Sasuke crawled closer to him and touched his face. There was dirt on Sasuke’s fingers, but Naruto didn’t care.

“You’re insane. It isn’t me.”

Naruto shrugged. “I’ll be insane. As long as I know that I can see you again, every day for the rest of my life.”

Sasuke shook his head and looked down at the dirt. “Of course you can,” he said. His eyes came back up to look at Naruto’s, and Naruto knew in that moment that nothing else he ever did would matter as much as this. 

He wondered what his mother might say, if she knew how fast he’d done this. He almost didn’t care. 


	6. Contrariorum Attrahunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Opposite attract.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> meant to be leegaa but again, never got there

Gaara didn’t know how he’d really let his siblings talk him into this. His entire life (and theirs, too, as they never let him forget that he was their baby), he’d been perfectly content to never put himself out there. He wasn’t lonely, he insisted, because he had them, and their shit dad Rasa, and Shukaku. No matter that Shukaku was some exotic sort of cat from the desert that couldn’t actually speak and seemed to live forever, and Kankuro was obsessed with whittling wood into faces and shapes instead of joining the family business in a serious way, and Temari always acted as though she would die if she didn't go and surf at least three times a week. And let’s not get started on their father. No family was perfect, Gaara reminded himself. At least, when he actually  _ did  _ want to feel alone, he could go and tend to the small plant he kept in his room. 

Right now, though, he wished to throttle his sister.

“Oh, come on, Temari. He works out, he’s fit, he’s got those… eyebrows.” Gaara shook his head. “There’s no way. It’s not happening.”

Temari had forced Gaara to make a  _ Bumble _ . A fucking Bumble. She'd had the help of their idiot brother, of course, but it was really all her doing. Kankuro had only provided pictures. The stupid bio and personal information, that was all Temari. She had swiping right on people she thought Gaara would like for months now, to no avail. There had only been a few Gaara had actually met with, and it always ended in a fiery disaster. She seemed very sure about this one, for whatever reason.

“No, really, look. Family man, and he looks up to his Dad… that’s sweet!” Temari shoved the phone at Gaara’s face.

“He’s so green,” Gaara remarked as he rifled through the pictures this “Rock Lee” person had to offer. And what kind of name was that, anyway? Who names their kid after a rock?

Gaara rolled his eyes and handed Temari her phone back. “It’s nice of you, really, but I don’t  _ want  _ to meet anyone. I’m fine the way I am right now, with—”

“Shukaku and Kankuro and me? No, you aren’t, Gaara. You’re  _ sad _ .” Temari tutted and shook her head. “And it won’t do you any good to tell me no, this time,” she added.

Gaara sighed. “And why’s that?”

“He’s going to come over,” Temari said absently. She was looking at something else on her phone at this point, and didn’t sound like she cared very much about the conversation anymore. Her nails clacked loud against the screen of her phone, but not louder than the screaming of Gaara’s heart.

“What!? He’s coming  _ here _ ?” Gaara spluttered. 

Temari nodded, never looking up. “Yeah. Tomorrow, I think. He doesn’t know about your weird cat, but he likes dogs. His Dad has a lotta dogs. Um.” Temari finally caught Gaara’s eyes again but pretended not to notice the panic she must have seen there. “Wear something nice, cover your tattoo or something. You should probably ask Kankuro for help with that.”

“Where’s Dad gonna be? He can’t— he doesn’t—”

Temari scoffed. “You think I didn’t plan for that? Dad’s going to some black-tie-city-officials dinner tomorrow night. So Lee is going to come and pick you up, and you’re going to hang out with him and you’re going to like it.” Her voice held a finality that Gaara hated. There she went, attempting to wield her big sister authority over him. Not this time, it wouldn’t fly.

“Is it a job interview or something? Goodness. No, Temari, tell him I changed my mind. Wait, does he think that he’s been talking to me this whole time?” Gaara realized maybe too late that that was just the sort of thing Temari would do, to really  _ sell  _ it.

Temari’s eyes darted to the side. “Uh, maybe?” Gaara pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, you’re hopeless! I couldn’t let you ruin this one. There’s something about him, I don’t know. You’re going to like him, I promise.”

Gaara exhaled a long breath. “You’re ruining my life. Excuse me.” He left Temari where she sat at the kitchen island, still typing aimlessly on her phone. 

“You’re going to the movies!” Temari called after Gaara. He closed his bedroom door in response. 

“Oh, Shukaku,” Gaara whined. His cat was laying squarely in the middle of his bed. He flicked his ear when Gaara said his name, but he didn’t open his eyes. Gaara flopped down next to the little brown cat, who jumped up and then tucked himself into Gaara’s side. 

“She’s going to be my ruination,” Gaara explained. His cat didn’t react. Gaara sat up and drew the cat onto his lap. He had a bad habit of petting Shukaku compulsively when he was nervous. 

What did he even have to be nervous about? This would end in ruin, just the way all of the other dates had. There was that one dark haired guy who had been decidedly snotty; he didn’t look at Gaara the whole night except to tell that he “sort of” liked Gaara’s tattoo. Then there had been that blonde kid who chewed with his mouth and didn’t wash his hands. Gaara shook his head in exasperation just thinking about it. Well, whatever, he told himself, the faster it came the faster it’d go, and be over.

The next day was Saturday. Temari left early to go and surf before the sun came up, and Kankuro didn’t come out of his room at all. Gaara went to see him, and he wasn’t surprised to see him with some ultra-sharp knife poking at some wooden person. 

“Ah, kid brother! What brings you to my neck of the woods?” Kankuro laid his tools and his project down on his expansive desk and gave Gaara his full attention. It smelled intensely of wood, sawdust, and paint in here. On the other side of the really large room was another one, where Kankuro’s office dedicated to his actual job was nestled in between shelves stuffed full of cans of paint and discarded projects. Gaara would really never understand how making puppets was any better than sitting behind a desk and working for their father-- oh, wait. Still, Kankuro was technically Gaara’s boss, a fact that Rasa never let any of them forget. He was going to run that stupid candle business one day, and Gaara would be stuck being his number two. 

“Um, it’s our sister,” Gaara began. While he recounted the story of what had happened the night before, Kankuro turned back to his puppet but nodded along to everything Gaara said. 

“Sounds like she’s just trying to help you,” Kankuro reasoned. “She doesn’t want you to die alone, little one. Isn’t that sweet of her?” Gaara threw his arms in the air and then held his head in his hands. 

“It’s hopeless, it’s all hopeless,” Gaara moaned. He looked up when he felt Kankuro’s hand on his shoulder. 

“Nothing is hopeless, brother,” Kankuro said. “Mari just wants you to smile more. She knows that you’ve been in there talking to your cat and your cactus.”

“God, it’s not a cactus, it’s a  _ fern _ and… never mind.” Gaara sighed. There was no use getting mad at or arguing with his brother. After all, he’d come in here, trying to get advice. That was his own mistake. “Thank you, Kankuro,” Gaara said.

“Of course, dear brother. Will you tell Father that there’s a pressing business matter that I must speak with him about?” Kankuro asked. Gaara wanted to ask exactly Kankuro wouldn’t just tell Rasa himself, but he nodded anyway and made sure to close the door behind him on the way out.

Gaara felt jittery as he entered Rasa’s office. Their father never, ever took a day off. Rasa prided himself on being a founder and CEO of one of the most successful small businesses in all of Suna. Yes, it was nice, Gaara supposed, but it was  _ candles _ . They sold scented wax. Gaara dreamed of a solution to his life-long predicament of never knowing what to do with himself, but he’d never been very creative. Or driven. Or passionate. 

“Gaara? I wasn’t expecting to see you until Monday. What’s this about?” Rasa looked up from whatever he was typing and sat back in his plush swivel chair. He always spoke to them all like he was about to be late for something, and he didn’t have very much time to talk. Gaara refrained from rolling his eyes and deigned to take a seat even when his father offered.

“Kankuro says he has something he wants to talk to you about, something about work,” Gaara said. 

“What would that be?”

Gaara shrugged. “I don’t know, he just told me to tell you. I don’t know why he didn’t tell you himself,” Gaara said, before Rasa could ask. “That’s all from me.” Gaara turned on his heel and left before Rasa could ask him anything else.

When Gaara ventured to the front of the house, he found Temari and her windswept hair sitting on the sofa, watching some mind-rotting reality television show.


	7. To Love An Uzumaki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s drawing close to the day that Naruto fulfills his dream of becoming Hokage. Konohamaru asked some of the people closest to Naruto what it means to love someone like him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is actually finished too haha idk it’s like... reverse character study and it was fun
> 
> i’m sure i probably could have added a few others but for me this was the group of people closest to naruto throughout his whole life

Sakura

Oh, me? I don’t know. He’s… special. Who doesn’t think so? 

He’s a hero. He’s a teacher. A friend. Comrade. Someone who shaped me, my persona, my perspective. He brought me to the light more than once. 

There are times when I wondered why he put up with me. I wonder why he made promises to me, and why he was so proud to have me on his team. I wasn’t the best to him. Sometimes, I wasn’t even good to him. I didn’t understand him, and I didn’t try to. Not for a long time. It wasn’t until we were, what, 16? That I realized that Naruto was a person. A person different than I, or Kakashi-sensei. Different from Captain Yamato, different from Sai. He sees the world differently than us. And it goes beyond how he was raised, what he learned in school.

It’s just… who he is. 

He cares. He cares about us more than he’s ever cared about himself. If it’s raining, he offers someone else his umbrella. If it’s cold, he insists someone else take his jacket. If someone was hungry, but he was _starving_ , he’d still give them his last crumb. 

Naruto is selfless, selfless to a fault. He’s never asked anyone for anything. He never expects anything of anyone. When he saved our lives from the Akatsuki, he didn’t ask for the fame that came with it. When he finally, finally brought Sasuke back home, he didn’t care for any fanfare or recognition. He only ever wanted us, the villagers, his friends, to accept him. 

It’s impossible not to love him, even though he is a knucklehead. He’s… everything to me.

Kakashi

To love an Uzumaki? To love and to be loved. I knew his mother, before he was born. She was a special woman. And though I knew his father a lot better, I suppose it’s Kushina we’re hearing when he speaks.

I see myself in the boy, of course. Though he has surpassed me, I feel incredibly grateful to have been his teacher. I see Minato-sensei, too, though Naruto doesn’t share very many of his mannerisms. I see my old comrade, Obito. His brashness, his determination, his _devotion_ to teamwork.

Above anything, I see someone wise beyond even my years. I didn’t have the most fun time growing up, and neither did he. But I never had such a lens cast on me as to be blamed for the attack on the village. People blamed the boy for the deaths of their parents, their brothers and sisters, their sons and daughters, their husbands and wives. The boy was _born_ that night. No part of it had been his fault. I cannot fathom having to come up in a village where there was such a stigma on me, and to be alone? He is much braver than I. 

Being his sensei was no easy task. He is loud, and he doesn’t listen. But what he lacks in poise, he makes up for tenfold in determination. He did not take weakness lightly, at first. Then, as the years wore on, he didn’t take weakness at all. He’s worked so hard, harder than anyone I’ve ever known.

Of course I love the boy. I love him like a son I hadn’t ever asked for. He told me that he loves me, too. 

Iruka

Naruto? Naruto. Deeper than words, the way that I feel about that boy. 

All I had ever done was shut him out, and not try to understand him. I… I blamed him for what happened to my parents, though I knew deep down that this was irrational. There was no one else to blame, and I was devastated. I wanted to hate him, I did. 

But the kid grew on me, I must admit it.

He’s not very smart, this much is known. His scores were _low_ , to say in the least. But he wanted to be good so badly, if only to beat Sasuke and to win the heart of Sakura. He saved my life even after all I’d done was ridicule him. He only ever wanted to fit in. 

What was it that he’d always say? “I want the village to see me as someone, someone important.”

Important indeed. 

There hasn’t been a shinobi like Naruto in the history of Konohagakure, or the Five Nations. One of a kind, once in a generation, once in a lifetime, once in history. That’s Naruto for you.

Yamato

Naruto can only be described as a handful. 

Being in charge of him in his worst moments might make you not like a kid, but there’s something about him. He never meant to lose control of himself, I know this. But his worst moments do not define him. 

It’s the moments that no one knows about, the moments that only us on Team 7 saw. That boy, what can I say? He’d give you the clothes off of his back if he thought you might need them. There was nothing that you could ask him to do that he wouldn’t at least attempt. He admits that he can’t do everything, but he can’t stop himself from trying.

It’s in his blood, helping people. His parents gave their lives for him, and he put his life up time again for a village full of people who wouldn’t do the same for him.

Is he smart? Not very. But does he try? Till it hurts him.

Sai

Naruto. He is a friend. I came to know the meaning of this word by my associations with him. I came to know the meaning of many other words through him.

Comrade.

Understanding.

Patience.

Love.

Determination.

There many different books one could read to find the definitions of these words, but one would be hard pressed to find someone who embodies them and so many more as well as Naruto. He does everything he does to his fullest extent. That’s the only way that he knows how to do things. He does not have a concept of halfway. It is always all or nothing for him, and he never chooses nothing.

Sasuke

There has never been a more important person on this planet than him. To love him? I live him. I breathe him. I bleed him.

I have been to many places, and seen many things. I have met many people, and I have experienced many sensations. I have lost some, and gained some along the way. Sometimes I was evil. Sometimes I was not. I haven’t ever been what could be defined as _good_. I was young, and then I was a little older, and I have grown still since then. But one thing remains constant in this ever-changing world.

Nothing, no one matters more to me than him.

I don’t know life before I loved Naruto. There won’t be life after I love him. It won’t ever end. Death cannot keep my heart from searching for him, in the light or the dark. I will find him, and he will find me. 

There is no one else for him, and no one else for me. There never has been, and there never will be. In this life, in past lives, in the lives to come. It will be his soul and mine. 

To love him is to breathe, to walk, to blink, to pray. To love him is to live.

Wait, what did you say? You’re going to show him this? Delete it!


	8. Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on a few prompts talking about words on wrists.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, all! I know that I have been away for a while, and I can explain! I have been very busy with classes this semester, and each class has posed me a new and ridiculous challenge. one of my classes is a literary fiction class, and it has thrown me off the deep end of my comfort zone. however, all of my writing for that class is finished, so i can get back into all of the things i really love!
> 
> I missed you guys, and more stuff coming soon!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy :)

You never really know what the word means when it appears. Some say that it’s the first word, some say it’s the last word, some say it’s the word your soulmate says to you the most. Loser was second only to love.

It had been hard, at first, to accept. They were fresh out of the Academy when the word had appeared on Naruto’s skin. He hadn’t noticed it, at first. Choji was snickering behind his hand, and Shikamaru stood over Naruto where he’d just fallen back from the blow of the ball they were throwing around.

“Nice ink, d’ya write that yourself?” Shikamaru reached his hand out for Naruto to take, to help him up. Naruto lifted his arm close to his eyes to examine his wrist.

“What?! _Loser_!” Naruto exclaimed in frustration. “I didn’t write this, you gotta believe me,” he implored them.

“I can tell,” Choji said between crunches. “It’s much too neat.”

People made fun of Naruto for it, on top of all the ridicule he was getting besides that. Other people got pretty words, like _love_ and _darling_. Kakashi-sensei had his own name on his wrist. Sakura didn’t have hers yet, but she was sure that it would be something Sasuke said to her. Sasuke didn’t have his, either, and he said he hoped it never developed. “Love is meaningless,” he would say. “It isn’t going to help me restore my clan or destroy my brother, so I don’t need it.” Naruto remained silent at those times, the times whenever Sasuke started on his tangent about Itachi. 

Anyway.

Naruto sat everyday next to Sasuke and Sakura, the word _loser_ burning its way into his consciousness. He endured it, only because he knew that one day he would be the Hokage, and these people would finally have to treat him like somebody, someone important. Definitely not like a _loser_.

Sasuke was the first person to call Naruto a loser. Team 7 wasn’t what Naruto had expected or hoped, to begin with. Dog-walking and finding cats in the forest wasn't exactly Naruto’s definition of what it meant to be a ninja, and it certainly wouldn’t help him become Hokage. But then, they’d taken the D-rank mission to the Land of Waves, and nothing was the same.

He’d just been trying to _help_ Sasuke, the ingrate, but instead of gratitude he was met with vitriol.

“You are such a _loser_!” Sasuke had shouted. Of course, Naruto had tried to defend himself, but after they were safely home, he looked at his wrist again. Humming to himself, he wondered. Well, no, he told himself. There was no way. Sasuke was full of hatred, with murderous goals, and Naruto didn’t think… well. 

He told himself that he was sure what love felt like. He loved Sakura-chan. He didn’t really see people around him in love, but he was sure it was real, and it dwelt in his heart. He felt it whenever he looked at his comrades. Even that stupid Sasuke, with his ever-grimacing face. Naruto wondered what it would be like to see Sasuke smile some time, a real one. 

But life got too hard for smiles, just that fast. He didn’t even get to become a chunin before everything started falling apart. 

When Sasuke’s words took form on his pale skin, Naruto wasn’t there to see it. Sasuke was _gone_. At least, Sakura’s wrist had a word on it now: _flower_. “I think it’s quite beautiful. I mean, my name is Sakura. It makes sense that Sasuke-kun would say it to me.” Ino scoffed and stomped away, the word _pig_ scribbled on her skin in lettering Naruto had definitely seen before. 

When he was alone, Naruto wondered if Sasuke’s word had appeared yet, what the word was, and who’d say it. He thought about it at night, while he stared at the moon through his window. Every night, he mumbled the same thing to himself before he got into bed.

“Please, Sasuke,” Naruto began, holding his shirt where his heart would be. “Please, come back.” The word _loser_ would burn his skin as he drew the covers up and the tears started to fall, but he needed that. It was the only thing that reminded him that there was still something out there, something out there just for him. Someone.

Naruto didn’t realize that all of his begging Sasuke for things when he wasn’t around still counted as talking to him. He didn’t know that the words had still been reaching Sasuke. When he cast his eyes up at Sasuke, standing upon that ridge with the wind blowing his hair and _sword_ at his back, Naruto wanted to say it again. _Please_. The word curled itself around his tongue until he was almost choking. He blamed that sensation instead on the dust and debris in the air.

“Is this you?” Sasuke called down to him. He held his arm up in the air , but Naruto couldn’t see. Naruto gasped sharply when Sasuke suddenly appeared next to him. “I asked you a question, loser,” Sasuke said gruffly. He pulled his billowing sleeve down to show Naruto the inside of his wrist. 

“What do you think it’s me for?” Naruto willed his voice to stop fucking shaking. Sasuke was the same person he’d been before… right? Except, there was a word written on him now. That was different. Naruto wrenched Sasuke’s arm up roughly so that it was out of their shadows and in the light of the sun.

“… Please?” Naruto felt his face getting hot. It was the summer, that was why. It reminded Naruto that Sasuke was spending his birthdays out here, alone. Naruto felt Sasuke wring himself free, and he put his hand on his hip.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you,” Sasuke said quietly. For such harsh words, there was nothing behind them but a wistfulness in Sasuke’s eyes. 

“Wha—” Speechless. Naruto looked from his wrist to Sasuke’s, obscured now by his sleeve once again.

“Listen to me,” Sasuke said. The anger had returned to his voice. “I told you how I feel about love. It means nothing, it is nothing. I don’t need it, so don’t try to make me fall in love with you.” Sasuke looked poised to say something else, but he pressed his lips together instead. 

Naruto didn’t like being told not to do something. It made it an imperative for him to do it. And he _did_ believe in love. He believed in it just the way he believed that this was Sasuke’s handwriting on his wrist, and it was Sasuke who’d been saying _loser_ to him his entire life. He believed in it the same way he believed that there was a purpose to it. Love existed to be felt.

It was just so incredibly difficult. Because Sasuke was _crazy_ , he was insane, and he was doing things that Naruto wouldn’t have ever thought possible. He was rogue, he was a missing-nin, and everyone knew it. His friends knew it, the senseis knew it, and Naruto certainly knew it. Naruto wondered to himself how he could love a person so evidently evil as Sasuke. How could he want to put his heart into the hands of someone who he knew would crush it in a fist and throw it to the floor? How could he love someone that wanted to see their home and everyone who lived in it destroyed? How could he trust someone who would join an organization whose primary goal was to find, capture, and kill people like himself? Naruto would ask himself these things, and then he would mumble it again. “Please, Sasuke,” he’d say to himself, “change your mind. Please come back.”

He sort of wished Sasuke had come back before the war had hit its pinnacle, but beggars cannot be choosers. It was ethereal to see Sasuke, to _feel_ Sasuke, and to know that Sasuke was finally out of the dark. Their energy had never been so in tune before. Naruto _knew_ that this was the moment, the time when he’d say it. But Sasuke wanted to _fight_. Sasuke still wanted to kill him.

 _Loser_.

Naruto traced the letters on the inside of his wrist with his. His chest was heaving, and he thought that maybe he’d just close his eyes, too. It was excruciating to turn his head toward Sasuke, and he had to squint, but he knew what word was etched into Sasuke’s skin in Naruto’s own awful handwriting.

 _Please_.

In other life, maybe, it wouldn’t have ended so soon. Naruto closed his eyes against the sharp rays of the sun. He could hear Sasuke’s breathing fading with each passing second. He coughed, and Naruto’s eyes flew open. 

“N-Naruto?” Sasuke was stuttering. 

“Yeah?” Naruto’s voice broke in the middle, and he hacked up some blood before Sasuke could answer him.

Sasuke seemed to be struggling to find the air to breathe the words. “I was wr-wrong,” he murmured. “Love is real.” He let his head turn toward Naruto, though his eyes were closed now. His chest wasn’t moving. The smallest of smiles played on Sasuke’s mouth.

“But you’re still a loser.”


End file.
